UK study ties COVID-19 symptoms to worse mental health

An analysis of 11 longitudinal UK studies published today in The Lancet Psychiatry links symptomatic COVID-19 to psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and lower life satisfaction that didn't abate by 3 months.As part of an ongoing study, a team led by King's College London and University College London researchers examined data from 11 longitudinal studies of 54,442 patients aged 16 years and older with repeated measurement of mental health and COVID-19 status published before and during the pandemic (April 2020 to April 2021).

The studies conducted antibody testing until June 2021.Women made up 61% of participants, and of the 40,819 patients with available race data, 90.2% were White.Steep case trajectoryWeighted data showed that, from April to June 2020, numbers of self-reported COVID-19 infections ranged from 87 of 1,432 (5.4%) of participants in the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) to 324 of 1,678 (19.3%) in the Next Steps (NS) study.

From November 2020 to April 2021, 173 of 1,536 (11.1%) NSHD participants to 1,523 of 3,837 (45.1%) Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) participants reported infections.Serology testing revealed that those having SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, indicating previous infection, varied from 4.7% of NSHD participants to 22.7% of MCS participants.

Among participants with information on COVID-19 and antibody status, from 2.6% of NSHD participants to 18.1% of MCS participants had both reported COVID-19 infection and antibodies.The proportion who reported infection but were negative for antibodies ranged from 8.5% of NSHD participants to 31.7% of MCS participants.