For Long-Haulers, Covid-19 Takes a Toll on Mind as Well as Body
...Early on in the pandemic, a pervasive myth among patients and some health authorities was the idea that Covid-19 was a short-term illness. Only in recent months has more attention been given to long-haulers. In online support groups like Body Politic and Survivor Corps, long-haulers have produced informal surveys and reports to study their course of illness.
Natalie Lambert, a health researcher at Indiana University School of Medicine, recently surveyed more than 1,500 long-haul patients through the Survivor Corps Facebook page and found a number of common psychological symptoms. She found that anxiety was the eighth most common long-haul symptom, cited by more than 700 respondents. Difficulty concentrating was also high on the list, and more than 400 reported feeling “sadness.”
Dr. Teodor Postolache, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, estimates that between one-third and one-half of Covid-19 patients experienced some form of mental health problem including anxiety, depression, fatigue or abnormal sleeping.
Those without Covid-19 infections are also seeing their mental health suffer amid the pandemic.
A study published in June by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that symptoms of anxiety and depression nationwide increased significantly during April through June of 2020 compared with the same period last year. This study found that adverse mental health symptoms were disproportionately reported in young adults, Black and Hispanic adults and essential workers. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, a nonprofit organization, has seen a 65 percent increase in people reaching out to its help line for mental health resources since the onset of the pandemic.
“The public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic needs to include addressing its mental health consequences,” said Mark Czeisler, an author of the C.D.C. study. ...
