Over 40% Covid-19 survivors in India face mental health decline: Study

New Delhi: Over 40 per cent of Covid-19 survivors in India suffer from mental health decline and drop in cognitive performance, says a new empirical study that has assessed the continuing psychological consequences of the pandemic, one year after it is over.

Based on interviews with Covid-19 patients attending tertiary care hospitals in Kolkata, the study found nearly 45 per cent decline in mental health conditions of people it surveyed and 41.5 per cent drop in cognitive performance.

Depression, anxiety and poor sleep quality have emerged as three major mental health effects of the dreaded viral infection.

Over 84 per cent of the survivors, the researchers say, report at least one of the symptoms: depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Also the survivors are more than three times likely to develop mental health conditions.

“Our research is the first to examine the mental health issues and cognitive impairment in Covid-19 patients in India. We looked at the cognitive outcome of psychiatric illnesses,” Madhushree Chakrabarty, the first author of the study and a researcher at Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Hyderabad told DH.

The psychological impact of the SARS-CoV-2 infections among Indians remains poorly understood in the absence of good quality research.

A 2022 study in the Lancet Public Health reported a 35 per cent rise in the prevalence of anxiety and depression among Indians during the pandemic.

But there is barely any study on the psychological conditions of the infected individuals even after the pandemic is over.

Under the guidance of principal investigator Atanu Biswas from the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata, Chakrabarty, who began her study at the BIN teamed up with researchers from the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata; North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri; Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and Burdwan Medical College to examine the mental health conditions of the Covid-19 survivors.

They began by interviewing 376 patients who attended one of the three tertiary care hospitals in the eastern metropolis between July, 2022 and November, 2023. The final analysis is on the basis of responses given by 99 Covid-19 patients and 31 non-infected individuals, used as "controls".

“This study reveals that Covid-19 survivors have significant mental health problems that interfere with their cognitive functioning even one year after contracting the infection. They had significant cognitive deficits that might progress into dementia,” the researchers reported in Frontiers of Psychiatry earlier this month.

The cognitive parameters that the team analysed include attention, memory, motivation and language use.

They found over 60 per cent of people surveyed reporting loss of taste and smell, which the researchers say is due to alterations in specific brain areas. Such experiences have consequential disruptions of cognitive ability and emotional well being.

“This study provides interesting insights around mental health implications of Covid-19 infection. There is now a growing body of evidence around post Covid-19 conditions, including mental health,” commented Anant Bhan, former president, International Association of Bioethics and an adjunct professor at the Yenepoya University, Mangalore, who is not associated with the study.

“With its limitations, this study presents Indian data around neurocognitive and mental health impact of Covid-19 infection and points to the need for both clinicians to be aware of this, and for more research in this area,” added Bhan, who works at Sangath, an organisation that promotes mental wellness.

Last year, a Parliamentary panel advised the Union Health Ministry to carry out a national mental health survey to generate “data on children, adolescents and caregivers so that specific interventions can be worked out.”