One in three COVID-19 survivors diagnosed with brain or mental health disorder within 6 months of infection, study finds - USA TODAY

COVID-19 patients looking at 14 different brain and psychiatric disorders.

A massive study conducted during the pandemic estimates 1 in 3 COVID-19 survivors were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months of infection.

The study, published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Psychiatry, used more than 230,000 electronic health records of COVID-19 patients mostly in the U.S.

Mental health diagnoses were most common among patients, with 17% diagnosed with anxiety and 14% diagnosed with a mood disorder.

Although neurological diagnoses were more uncommon, they were more prevalent in patients who had been seriously ill during a COVID-19 infection.

Study authors also looked at about 100,000 flu patients and more than 230,000 patients diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection over the same time period and found neurological and psychiatric diagnoses were more common in COVID-19 patients.

There was a 44% greater risk of brain or mental health disorder diagnoses after COVID-19 than after the flu, and a 16% greater risk than with respiratory tract infections, according to the study.

The size of the study also demonstrates how the long-term effects of COVID-19 can impact a country’s health care system even after the disease is gone, said lead author Paul Harrison, a professor at the University of Oxford in the U.K

And with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting about 60,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, the need for health care services post-COVID-19 infection could escalate, said Noah Greenspan, a cardiopulmonary physical therapist and founder of the Pulmonary Wellness Foundation in New York City