People who suffered with Covid last year are at higher risk of mental health issues than those without the virus, a new study has found.
The report, which has been published in The Lancet, studied the mental health of more than 247,000 people from March 27, 2020 to August 13, 2021.
Participants were recruited from Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
A total of 9,979 people (4 per cent of participants) contracted Covid during the study period.
Experts then contrasted the symptoms of depression, anxiety, Covid related stress, poor sleep quality among individuals with and without Covid.
It found that people with the virus were more likely to develop symptoms of depression and poorer sleep quality.
People who were bedridden with Covid for one week or longer were at 50 to 60 per cent higher risk of depression and anxiety up to 16 months after diagnosis.
Ingibjörg Magnúsdóttir, of the University of Iceland and the author of the study, said: “Previous research has mostly focused on mental health of hospitalised Covid-19 patients and shorter follow up after diagnosis.
“These findings indicate that the severity of the Covid-19 illness in the general population may be an important determinant of long-term mental health symptoms.”
However, people diagnosed with Covid but were never bedridden due to illness were consistently at lower risk of depression and anxiety than those who didn’t have the virus.
Speaking on this, Unnur A Valdimarsdóttir, professor and senior author of the paper, said: “It is possible that the completion of low or asymptomatic Covid-19 infection results in a certain relief among these individuals that can now return to their normal lives.
“This may be one of the reasons for the lower prevalence of mental health symptoms observed in this group compared to the population still worried about being infected and, therefore, still reducing social interactions.”
The UK has recorded more than 19.7m cases of Covid since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
It is estimated that around two per cent of the UK population have reported symptoms of so-called long Covid, which can last for more than four weeks after their initial infection.
Two of the long Covid symptoms listed by the NHS is depression and anxiety.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) found that people who have had one or more doses of the Covid vaccine are less likely to develop long Covid than those who are unvaccinated.
