A study by a group at the University of Oxford has found that around one in eight individuals infected by the CCP virus end up suffering from a neurological or psychiatric illnesses within six months.
They found that more cases of stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, dementia, and psychotic disorders were diagnosed among those infected by the CCP virus compared to those who suffered from the other respiratory infections.
The research also found that incidence of disease was higher in hospitalized patients.
According to Dr. Max Taquet, lead author of the study, among those CCP virus patients who did not require hospitalization, one in nine were also later diagnosed with conditions like depression or stroke.
Earlier research by Taquet’s research group had indicated increased risk of neurological or psychiatric illness among COVID-19 patients, with reports of one in five presenting with a psychiatric disorder within three months of testing positive. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP virus, also known as coronavirus.
This new study supports the previous analysis, and while neither prove a direct link between COVID-19 and neurological or psychiatric disease, the findings will help researchers decide how to proceed with further studies.
It also remains unclear how long CCP virus patients may be at risk of presenting with the neurological or psychiatric illnesses following their recovery COVID-19, Taquet told The Guardian.
“For diagnoses like a stroke or an intracranial bleed, the risk does tend to decrease quite dramatically within six months,” he told the publication. “But for a few neurological and psychiatric diagnoses, we don’t have the answer about when it’s going to stop.”
As of Jan. 28, the global death toll from the CCP virus is approaching 2.2 million, and cases of infection have exceeded 101 million people, according to official data collated by Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
