A recent The Lancet Psychiatry study investigated whether psychiatric and cognitive symptoms commence or persist beyond a year of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related hospitalization. They investigated early aspects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection that predict long-term symptoms and relationships between the symptoms and occupational functioning. Background COVID-19 increases the risk of psychiatric and cognitive outcomes, such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive deficits in hospitalized individuals.
The scarcity of long-term longitudinal data makes it unclear whether neuropsychiatric disorders commence or persist beyond the first year, whether acute COVID-19 aspects predict later outcomes, and whether symptoms affect occupational functioning. Electronic health records cannot distinguish between emergent disorders and delayed diagnosis. Studies determining the trajectories of emergent or persistent symptoms and assessing cognitive deficits are limited.
About the study In the present prospective cohort, longitudinal study, researchers assessed psychiatric, cognitive, and fatigue symptom emergence and evolution over time to identify aspects of acute COVID-19 that predict these outcomes and assess symptom correlation with occupational changes. The Post-hospitalization COVID-19 (PHOSP-COVID) study included adults hospitalized due to SARS-CoV-2 infection at either of the National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in the United Kingdo.