Research After contracting SARS-CoV-2, many people report weariness, mental confusion, and sleep issues. Other research have found a link between Trusted Source and mental health issues, however not all have found a link between Trusted Source anxiety or depression.

Researchers at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, the authors of the present study, estimate that 37% of Americans have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 thus far. According to Trusted Source, just roughly one in four participants showed up for testing.

An observational study on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be limited in scope. For example, they don’t take into consideration things such as an individual’s work, which can affect their chance of catching the virus. As a result, some people are more inclined than others to seek out a medical test or visit a health care provider.

Comparing the health outcomes of those who had a positive COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result with those of those who had a negative test is one wayTrusted Source to account for these factors.

Almost 12 million people were surveyed in this study. SARS-CoV-2-positive patients had worse psychiatric health outcomes than those who were negative for the virus.

Journal of the American Medical Association OpenTrusted Source published the study.

Sleep problems and weariness were found to be associated with SARS-CoV-2, but not other mental health issues including depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Matthias Pierce, Ph.D., the study’s senior author, tells Medical News Today that the results were exactly what he expected.

Fever has been linked to a number of diseases, including SARS and MERS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), meningitis, hepatitis, and glandular fever.

It shocked us that those who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 had a similar risk of mental discomfort as those who tested positive. SARS-CoV-2 positive patients may be more likely to suffer from psychiatric disease because of their demographics, he said.

According to the findings, SARS-CoV-2-related psychiatric illnesses may be overestimated in health record analyses based on only positive PCR results for SARS-CoV-2.

From the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum data collection, which includes data on clinical events, such as diagnoses and treatments for 19 million patients in the United Kingdom, the researchers acquired data for their study.

Participants who were 16 or older and visited a health clinic between February 1 and December 9, 2020, were included in the study.

The researchers analyzed data from 11,923,105 people in total. During the study period, 232,780 people, or 2%, had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result.

Psychiatric diseases, such as depression, self-harm, and sleep disorders, were examined in the individuals’ medical records by researchers. Psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants and mood stabilizers, were also investigated.

People who had a negative test result were more likely to be women, between the ages of 16 and 24, or beyond the age of 80, to have a higher BMI, and to have more prior health conditions.

Those with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were also more likely to have suffered psychiatric disorders, such as exhaustion or sleep issues, in the previous five years, or to have obtained a prescription for psychotropic medicine.

People with positive test findings had a psychiatric morbidity at six months, compared to 0.9 percent of those with negative test results, after accounting for numerous characteristics, such as ethnicity, smoking status, and BMI.

People with positive test results were more likely to suffer from sleeping disorders or be prescribed drugs such antipsychotics, nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics, and mood stabilizers to help with their sleep problems.

Researchers also found that people in their 80s were most likely to develop psychiatric diseases, those in their 60s were most likely to suffer from exhaustion and sleep difficulties, and women were more likely to suffer from any condition.

The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and sleep disorders has not been established. Inflammation may be a factor, according to Dr. Pierce.

People’s return to health following a time of illness is very diverse and depends on a wide range of biological, psychological, and social causes. Following a viral infection, a person’s inflammatory response might continue long after the acute phase of disease, and they may struggle to return to their pre-infected state.”

MNT spoke with Dr. Aaron Bunnell, an associate professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He believes that weariness is likely a result of multiple factors.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and sleep difficulties are possible side effects of the infection, as can autoimmune or systemic responses to the illness even after the virus has been eliminated.

Due to inflammatory reactions or blood-brain barrier disruption, sleep disturbances following SARS-CoV-2 may be to blame.” “Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is associated with sleep disturbance,” he said.

There were no significant differences in rates of anxiety, depression, or psychosis between those with positive results and those with negative results, according to sensitivity analyses.

Negative PCR test findings were associated with an increased risk of developing psychiatric illnesses in comparison to the general population. There may be unobserved confounders associated to the likelihood of taking a test and suffering a mental illness during the epidemic, according to the researchers.

In their study, experts believe that these unobserved characteristics are most likely linked to one’s job and health concerns. However, while many employees were on leave or working from home during the epidemic, those in the healthcare sector were required to keep their jobs, which may have contributed to an overly stressful work environment.

Those who seek a test for COVID-19 may already be experiencing health anxiety, which may predict a potential mental disorder, according to the authors of this study

Those who had negative test results were more likely to have had mental illness than those who had positive ones.

Individuals who experienced influenza were also studied for incidence of psychiatric problems, as well. SARS-CoV-2 patients were more likely to develop psychiatric symptoms than those with influenza over the same research period.

SARS-CoV-2 patients may have had a more severe infection or preexisting health condition than those with influenza, according to the researchers.

People with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results are twice as likely to suffer psychiatric disorder than those with influenza, according to recent studiesTrusted Source that examined data from the United States.

This may be because prior studies did not follow up individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection from the same date, nor did they control for patient distance to hospitals and hospital capacities, according to the study authors.

SARS-CoV-2 has been linked to sleep disorders and weariness, but not to other psychological health concerns, say researchers.