Wolfson Fellow leads Covid-19 mental health study

Harrison's research shows that while Covid-19 can lead to serious respiratory, pulmonary and cardiac issues, it also has other severe, far-reaching neurological consequences. According to the study of more than 230,000 mostly US-based coronavirus patients, anxiety (17%) and depression (14%) were the most prevalent diagnoses of mental health disorders after Covid-19. 

"Unfortunately, for some patients, COVID is not a quick illness. It's an illness that leaves one with a number of sequelae," Harrison commented. "Although the individual risk for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial." 

The study concluded that, as Covid-19 is followed by significant rates of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses, health services need to be configured and resourced to deal with this anticipated need. 

Click here to read the full study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry.