On Friday, a research team led by Professors Yeon Dong Geon from Kyung Hee University Medical Center’s Digital Health Center and Kim Sun Young from the Department of Family Medicine announced that their findings were published in the June online issue of the prestigious academic journal Nature Human Behavior. The study highlights an increased risk of neuropsychiatric complications following COVID-19 infection.
The researchers analyzed large-scale medical big data, examining neuropsychiatric complications such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and cognitive impairment among 10 million South Koreans and 12 million Japanese who contracted COVID-19.
The findings revealed that patients who experienced neuropsychiatric sequelae after COVID-19 infection had a 70% higher incidence compared to the general population and patients with other respiratory diseases.
In particular, the long-term risk significantly increased for various diseases such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, cognitive decline, anxiety disorder, encephalitis, ischemic stroke, and mood disorder. However, it was also confirmed that vaccination against COVID-19 reduces the risk of neuropsychiatric side effects. Patients who received one dose of the vaccine had a 30% lower risk of side effects, and those who received two doses had an 89% lower risk than unvaccinated patients.
Kim noted that many patients experiencing long COVID, which persists for more than four weeks, report issues such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. He emphasized that continuous monitoring of long COVID patients will be necessary to provide proper treatment and diagnosis for these conditions.
Yeon of the Digital Healthcare Center said, “This study was led by a multinational research team (Spain, UK, France, Sweden, Greece, Canada) organized by Kyung Hee University Medical Center. It will be the first evidence to suggest that WHO-recommended COVID-19 vaccines can prevent neuropsychiatric long COVID.”
