Depressed mood or anxiety exhibited in COVID-19 patients may possibly be a sign that the virus affects the central nervous system, according to an international study led by a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researcher.
These two psychological symptoms were most closely associated with a loss of smell and taste rather than the more severe indicators of the novel coronavirus such as shortness of breath, cough or fever, according to the study.
“If you had asked me why would I be depressed or anxious when I am COVID positive, I would say it is because my symptoms are severe and I have shortness of breath or I can’t breathe or I have symptoms such as cough or high fever,” said Ahmad Sedaghat, MD, PhD, an associate professor and director of rhinology, allergy and anterior skull base surgery, in the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
“None of these symptoms that portended morbidity or mortality was associated with how depressed or anxious these patients were,” said Sedaghat, also a UC Health physician specializing in diseases of the nose and sinuses.
“The only element of COVID-19 that was associated with depressed mood and anxiety was the severity of patients’ loss of smell and taste. This is an unexpected and shocking result,” added Sedaghat.
Sedaghat conducted a prospective, cross-sectional telephone questionnaire study which examined characteristics and symptoms of 114 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 over a six-week period at Kantonsspital Aarau in Aarau, Switzerland.
Severity of the loss of smell or taste, nasal obstruction, excessive mucus production, fever, cough and shortness of breath during COVID-19were assessed. The findings of the study are available online in The Laryngoscope.
At the time of enrollment in the study, when participants were experiencing COVID-19, 47.4 percent of participants reported at least several days of depressed mood per week while 21.1 percent reported depressed mood nearly every day. In terms of severity, 44.7 percent of participants reported expressing mild anxiety while 10.5 percent reported severe anxiety.
“The unexpected finding that the potentially least worrisome symptoms of COVID19 may be causing the greatest degree of psychological distress could potentially tell us something about the disease,” said Sedaghat.
“We think our findings suggest the possibility that psychological distress in the form of depressed mood or anxiety may reflect the penetration of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, into the central nervous system,” added Sedaghat.
Sedaghat says researchers have long thought that the olfactory tract may be the primary way that coronaviruses enter the central nervous system. There was evidence of this with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, a viral illness that first emerged in China in November 2002 and spread through international travel to 29 countries.
Infrequent but severe central nervous system symptoms of COVID-19 such as seizures or altered mental status have been described, but depressed mood and anxiety may be the considerably more common but milder central nervous symptom of COVID-19, explains Sedaghat. (ANI)
