Coleman, BenCasiraghi, ElenaBlau, HannahChan, LaurenHaendel, MelissaLaraway, BryanCallahan, Tiffany J.Deer, Rachel R.Wilkins, KenReese, JustinRobinson, Peter N.2022-08-232022-08-232021-12-022022-06-02<p>medRxiv 2021.11.30.21267071; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.30.21267071. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.30.21267071" target="_blank"> Link to preprint on medRxiv.</a></p>10.1101/2021.11.30.2126707134909790https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/50541<p>This article is a preprint. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review.</p> <p>The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS), UL1TR001453, helped fund this study.</p>Background COVID-19 has been shown to increase the risk of adverse mental health consequences. A recent electronic health record (EHR)-based observational study showed an almost two-fold increased risk of new-onset mental illness in the first 90 days following a diagnosis of acute COVID-19. Methods We used the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, a harmonized EHR repository with 2,965,506 COVID-19 positive patients, and compared cohorts of COVID-19 patients with comparable controls. Patients were propensity score-matched to control for confounding factors. We estimated the hazard ratio (COVID-19:control) for new-onset of mental illness for the first year following diagnosis. We additionally estimated the change in risk for new-onset mental illness between the periods of 21-120 and 121-365 days following infection. Findings We find a significant increase in incidence of new-onset mental disorders in the period of 21-120 days following COVID-19 (3.8%, 3.6-4.0) compared to patients with respiratory tract infections (3%, 2.8-3.2). We further show that the risk for new-onset mental illness decreases over the first year following COVID-19 diagnosis compared to other respiratory tract infections and demonstrate a reduced (non-significant) hazard ratio over the period of 121-365 days following diagnosis. Similar findings are seen for new-onset anxiety disorders but not for mood disorders. Interpretation Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are at an increased risk for developing new-onset mental illness, especially anxiety disorders. This risk is most prominent in the first 120 days following infection. Funding National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).en-USThe copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/EpidemiologyCOVID-19mental illnessmental healthInfectious DiseaseMental and Social HealthPsychiatryPsychiatry and PsychologyTranslational Medical ResearchVirus DiseasesUMCCTS fundingPreprinthttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1296&amp;context=umccts_pubs&amp;unstamped=1https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/umccts_pubs/28629500682umccts_pubs/286