Reuters: One in five COVID-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days - study.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mental-illness/one-in-five-covid-19-patients-develop-mental-illness-within-90-days-study-idUSKBN27P34L - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mental-illness/one-in-five-covid-19-patients-develop-mental-illness-within-90-days-study-idUSKBN27P34L

........  'And a load develop them from being locked in to avoid it.

.................................................................................................................................................  That really is a no-win situation.

It will be OK as long as they don't start eating people......

Zombie Apocalypse......lol

Sorry shouldn't be flippant.....

"The study also found that people with a pre-existing mental illness were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than those without."

Interesting.

While the effects of covid (including indirect ones related to isolation) can lead to mental problems, it is also the case that when mental problems affect decision making;  in which case poor decisions (like inability to see the need for social distancing*) can lead to more infections.   This is a nasty spiral.

* In this case I am thinking of people with diagnosed problems affecting the frontal lobes (including accidents, or heading too many footballs, or too many blows to the head in boxing etc).  This is not to imply that all those, who for political ideology, oppose NPI (like wearing masks or keeping social distance) have mental health issues.  

Could the meds given to people give them a false sense of security,

I say this as I know someone who is on anti anxiety meds, they don't think there's a problem ,and refuse to wear a mask......?

AI wrote: "The study also found that people with a pre-existing mental illness were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than those without." Interesting.

I wonder why.  It could be medications, a correlation between mental and physical illness*, the greater ease of finding cases when the sufferers are regularily visiting a doctor, contagion in institutions, or a combination of all of those, or even something I have not thought of.

Please could you publish links to that study?   I would love to read it.  Thanks!

*For instance I know schizophrenia has a chemical component and long term pain can lead to depression.

interesting....

"One in five American adults has a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health ".

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/09/30/Study-Adults-with-mental-illness-up-to-twice-as-likely-to-die-from-COVID-19/3731601471455/ - https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/09/30/Study-Adults-with-mental-illness-up-to-twice-as-likely-to-die-from-COVID-19/3731601471455/

Here you go, Techno:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30462-4/fulltext

In answer to your question, I think cortisol is part of the equation here.  Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body in response to stress.  It's the fight or flight hormone.  If a person is exposed to chronic stress, such as combat or abuse, the cortisol could remain consistently elevated, which can lead to diabetes, heart disease, diminished immune system response, and damage to the hippocampus of the brain, which governs memory.  Long-term elevated cortisol is also linked to anxiety and depression causally.  And cortisol is released during illness, especially viral illnesses.  So you can see that people with high cortisol would be more likely to contract Covid, and then people who have Covid would have elevated cortisol.  Long-haulers could develop chronically high cortisol, which would then make them more prone to the conditions mentioned above.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol#:~:text=Cortisol%20can%20weaken%20the%20activity%20of%20the%20immune,Cortisol%20also%20has%20a%20negative-feedback%20effect%20on%20interleukin-1. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol#:~:text=Cortisol%20can%20weaken%20the%20activity%20of%20the%20immune,Cortisol%20also%20has%20a%20negative-feedback%20effect%20on%20interleukin-1.

Thank you VQ!  much appreciated!

Thank you ksc too.

To add to that lot, I found this:   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mental-illness-idUSKBN27P34L - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mental-illness-idUSKBN27P34L (Carbon's original post) - Thanks Carbon too.

It is looking as if all the above reasons are involved to some degree or other.  Covid even increases the risks of developing dementia.  What an sneakily nasty little disease this is!  

Thanks again, AI!

High cortisol is unfortunately associated with dementia as well:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17151169/ - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17151169/

I don’t know where I saw it but a research noticed that the number of COVID patients with dementia died at a much higher rate. Already weakened blood brain barrier?

Were the rates higher because nursing homes are full with Alzheimer’s patients or did they do a study on patients outside of nursing homes?

Good question JellyMama!  (I don't know the answer)

"BBC" wrote: People with learning disabilities were up to six times more likely to die from Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, analysis shows. A https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-deaths-of-people-with-learning-disabilities - report from Public Health England (PHE) found the death rate for those with a learning disability was 30 times higher in the 18-34 age group.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54924121

Again this points to "residential care" as a weak point, as all the resources (PPE etc) were being poured into hospitals but not care homes, and infected people sent to the homes to free up hospital beds.