Millions are suffering from COVID for long periods of time. A staggering number of possible symptoms are possibleThis can last for many months. Alternatively, you could even spend years.. Researchers have found a link between mental stress and long-term COVID to provide further insight into this frustratingly persistent condition.
These stressors are Depression, anxiety and other types often overlooked such as loneliness, perceived stress and concern about COVID.
Surprisingly these stressors were more predictive of COVID over physical comorbidities (including hypertension) DiabetesHigh cholesterol, asthma, and Cancer.
Ironically, these connections can increase anxiety. They are a timely reminder that mental health must be prioritized, even though there is constant globalization. pandemic. While the reasons for these stressors can be very different, they can all cause similar problems to our bodies.
“There is a long history of people refusing to take these medications.” [mental health]”conditions as serious as they might take physical conditions that might be more easily to measure or see,” Andrea Roberts, Harvard University neuroepidemiologist Andrea Roberts Submitted StatNews.
“For COVID long, obviously, then it becomes very important that we look at psychological well-being, and it raises the question of how important it is to identify and treat mental health problems.”
The team is emphatic that this in no way means long COVID symptoms are all in our head – listing several reasons why the chronic condition is not psychosomatic.
Roberts, Siwen Wang (a Harvard medical doctor) and their colleagues based the analysis on 54.960 participants to large ongoing nurses’ healthcare studies. Researchers gathered data from 3,193 COVID-positive nurses. Over 19 months, the volunteers completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires. This began in April 2020.
Long COVID was found to be between 30-50% more likely in people who have symptoms of any of the stressors.
“Participants who experienced high levels in two or more types distress [had]A mere 50 percent increase in the risk of a post-traumatic event COVID-19Wang and colleagues write that conditions are more severe than those who experienced a low level of distress. Their paper.
Long COVID affected more than 40% of the participants. When participants were excluded from the study, their results remained similar.
“We were amazed at the strong association between psychological distress and a higher risk of COVID-19-related COVID,” Says Wang.
“Distress was strongly associated with the development of long COVID, more than with physical health risk factors like obesity and asthma.”
Other long COVID symptoms like coughing are not signs of mental illness. Furthermore, even though physical activity has been shown to protect against mental illness relapses in half of long COVID patients, exercise was only half the solution. Therefore, both mental and physical stressors can exacerbate long COVID.
Psychological stress has been associated with inflammation via the release inflammatory cytokine protein proteins. Long-term COVID implicated. Studies show that stress may also suppress our immune systems.
Although the study is large, most participants were of a similar demographic – mostly white women with an average age of around 50. The researchers are still establishing an association, but not conclusively linking this combination to long COVID.
This could be a common symptom of long COVID, and not the mental health conditions.
This isn’t however the first study to show a link between long COVID and distress. A UK studyMultiple sclerosis patients were found to have prolonged COVID symptoms for a majority of the time. Another 12 percent had them for at most 12 weeks.
Wang and his team also highlighted how other researchers have found similar links between mental illness, long-term Lyme symptoms or psychological disorders. CFS/ME.
It is still difficult to know the entire picture. However, researchers can look into these possible leads and determine exactly what is happening with this chronic condition that is increasing in prevalence.
“These results underscore the need to raise public awareness about mental health and get mental healthcare for those who need it. Ends Roberts.
This research was published in JAMA Psychiatry.
