A study conducted by the University of São Paulo (USP) pointed out that patients who recovered from moderate and severe Covid-19 had a high incidence of cases of depression, anxiety and psychiatric deficits.
The research evaluated 425 patients, between six and nine months after hospital discharge.
In an interview with CNN Radiothe psychiatrist at the USP School of Medicine and first author of the article, Rodolfo Damiano, said that a prevalence of mental disorders was already expected.
“What was surprising, unlike other viral infections, were the impacts on cognition, memory, attention and executive function,” he said.
About 51.1% of participants reported experiencing memory decline after infection, and another 13.6% developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder was diagnosed in 15.5%, and in 8.14% of them the problem arose after the disease.
Depression, in turn, was established for 8% of patients – in 2.5% of them only after admission.
“Cognitive symptoms were the most prevalent, we applied a test to connect the dots, and the individuals in the sample had, on average, twice the expected time for their age group, characterizing the slowness in the execution of tasks”, reported the psychiatrist.
Rodolfo Damiano also explained that psychiatric treatment is carried out in the same way as before the pandemic, but reported that “not all patients respond to medications as we expected.”
“We will begin to understand the real impacts and the best forms of intervention in the late stages of the disease, it is the same therapeutic arsenal, but perhaps adjustments will be necessary over time”, he evaluated.
Source: CNN Brasil
