University of Bristol study finds increased mental illnesses in unvaccinated people

The new study by the University of Bristol has added to the existing pieces of evidence that mental illnesses increased after Covid-19 infections, especially in unvaccinated people.

Study in UK: After the Covid-19 pandemic it was seen that mental illnesses increased worldwide. It was seen in both population-based and hospital-based studies. However, there was not much evidence to prove this fact. Now, in a new study by the University of Bristol Medical School, University of Cambridge and Swansea University Medical School, University of Oxford, and University College London (UCL), data of 18,648,606 adults aged between 18 and 110 years were analysed and registered with a GP in England.

One of the study’s lead authors, Dr Venexia Walker, Senior Research Fellow in Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences (PHS) and MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol said, “Our findings have important implications for public health and mental health service provision, as serious mental illnesses are associated with more intensive healthcare needs and longer-term health and other adverse effects. Our results highlight the importance of COVID-19 vaccination in the general population and particularly among those with mental illnesses, who may be at higher risk of both SARS-CoV-2 infection and adverse outcomes following COVID-19.”

“We have already identified associations of COVID-19 with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and now mental illnesses. We are continuing to explore the consequences of COVID-19 with ongoing projects looking at associations of COVID-19 with renal, autoimmune and neurodegenerative conditions,” said Jonathan Sterne, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University's Bristol Medical School: PHS, Director of the NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, and one of the study’s authors.

The researchers also studied the data of 14,035,286 adults who were vaccinated and 866,469 had confirmed having Covid earlier. The mental illnesses developed after COVID-19 include general anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, serious mental illness, suicide, self-harm, addiction and eating disorders. It was found that such mental issues were found mostly in people who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as compared to those who had less infection and were not hospitalized.

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