The pandemic has been quite on the rise for some time now. It took over the word halting tourism, and operations of many more industries that require mobility. And for some time, many countries even locked their borders. But even with restrictions on movements slowly easing up, people are still wary about even leaving their refuge, their houses. While almost everyone had to lock themselves up, the covid victims had to exercise complete isolation. And so, the COVID-19 survivors were bound to undergo stress.
Numerous researches have been conducted on this pandemic, physiological as well as psychological. And all of them have stated that a certain percentage of them get subjected to one or the other mental disorder, it could be depression, and it can also be dementia. Now that this one virus has infected 54.4 million people and counting, any percentage of this will be a large number.
Covid results in mental disorders
And when the number is as large as 18.1%, one can only dare imagine the number of survivors who just recovered from a significant illness only to be subjected to another disease. Khaleej Times reported that according to a recent Lancet study, about 18.1% of COVID-19 survivors develop a mental disorder within 14 to 90 days of the virus.
What professionals have to say
“The virus might be directly affecting the brain in some ways, maybe through the immune system, which leads to the mental health problem,” Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, told a publication.
Simon Wessely, regius professor of psychiatry at King’s College London, said:
“COVID-19 affects the central nervous system, and so might directly increase subsequent disorders. But this research confirms that is not the whole story, and that this risk is increased by previous ill health.”
A senior pulmonologist, Dr. Parkar, a famous doctor in Mumbai, contracted the virus as well. The 62-year-old diabetic said he experienced memory loss after discharge from the hospital. In talks with a publication, he said:
“I rarely cry, except when my mother died. But Covid-19 was pure trauma… like seeing death and coming out of it. While I was in the hospital with Covid, I would break down and cry every time a colleague called me.”
The whole ordeal with Covid-19 is a new phenomenon considering doctors, researchers, and the general public are also struggling to understand it. Now and then, other research surfaces that associate a news problem or a troubling consequence of COVID-19. So we need to be supportive of all the COVID-19 survivors while researchers do their best to understand the pandemic on our behalf.
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