Is long Covid linked to suicide? Scientists warn of a hidden crisis

After effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are immense as some of those who were infected suffer from long Covid, which is a phenomenon of Covid-related ailments remaining in patients long after they recover.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), long Covid is a complex medical condition that can be hard to diagnose as it has a range of more than 200 symptoms.

When long Covid is concerned, people have reported neurological symptoms, including difficulty thinking or concentrating. Headaches, sleep problems, dizziness, pins-and-needles feeling, loss of smell or taste and depression, etc some of the other reported symptoms.

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Some of the symptoms can resemble other illnesses such as exhaustion, cognitive impairment, pain, fever and heart palpitations, etc.

A report by Reuters mentioned the case of Scott Taylor, who never got to move on from COVID-19. Taylor caught the disease in spring 2020.

As per the agency report, the 56-year-old still had not recovered about 18 months later when he killed himself at his home near Dallas, having lost his health, memory and money.

While telling the plight of millions of sufferers of long Covid, Taylor wrote in a final text to a friend, "No one cares. No one wants to take the time to listen."

"I can hardly do laundry without complete exhaustion, pain, fatigue, pain all up and down my spine. World spinning dizzily, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea. It seems I say stuff and have no idea of what I'm saying," Taylor added.

The case highlights the fact that suffering can drag a person to a place where he/she might even think about ending his/her life. Although, there is no authoritative data on the frequency of suicides among sufferers.

But several scientists from organisations including the US National Institutes of Health and Britain's data-collection agency are beginning to study a potential link between long Covid and suicides.

The experts are following evidence of increased cases of depression and suicidal thoughts among people with long Covid.

Leo Sher, a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Health System in New York who studies mood disorders and suicidal behaviour, said, "I'm sure long COVID is associated with suicidal thoughts, with suicide attempts, with suicide plans and the risk of suicide death. We just don't have epidemiological data."

As per the Reuters report, Sher said pain disorders were a very strong predictor of suicide and inflammation in the brain also. Studies done so far, attempted to link such issues with long Covid. Sher said, "We should take this seriously."

An analysis for Reuters conducted by Seattle-based health data firm Truveta showed that patients with long Covid were nearly twice as likely to receive a first-time antidepressant prescription within 90 days of their initial Covid diagnosis compared with people diagnosed with Covid alone.

(With inputs from agencies)

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