And - just hours after putting up the previous post - we learn that survivors of COVID-19 are actually exhibiting all the symptoms of actual PTSD, the traumatic stress being the battle against the virus.
A study conducted in Italy on 381 recovered COVID patients, reported in JAMA Psychiatry, found a high correlation between documented COVID symptoms and symptoms of PTSD measured in post-COVID mental health assessments.
The strongest predictor [of PTSD] was persistence of three or more Covid-19 symptoms, the same symptoms described by long-Covid patients: fatigue, brain fog, heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, headaches, and others... Around 70% of people who reported experiencing three or more persistent medical symptoms were found to have PTSD compared to 31% for people with one or two, the study found.
As it turns out, a similar study of 714 patients in China had been done in early 2020, and reported that 96% had PTSD symptoms.
I'm tired of doing math. I'll leave that up to you. Over one hundred million people have "recovered" from COVID worldwide; over 20 million of them in the US*. Post-COVID PTSD is an emerging medical term used to describe mental health challenges faced by well over half of them.
"... some experts say the world should be bracing for a mental health crisis." Do you think?
* - Both these numbers are almost certainly way too low.
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