After recovery, Covid-19 survivors battle insomnia, anxiety

The Covid-19 virus does not only attack a patient's respiratory system but can also affect the mental health as many patients have recounted experiencing loneliness, fear, insomnia, anxiety and even depression.

The revelations were made in a recent Lancet study that stated 18.1 per cent Covid patients had a psychiatric problem within 14 to 90 days of infection.

According to The Indian Express, Dr Jalil Parkar of Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, who has treated over 1,400 Covid-19 patients since March 11 from which around 200 were critical cases, contracted the virus which also attacked his central nervous system.

The 62-year-old senior pulmonologist, Dr Parkar who is a diabetic, said he realised he had underestimated the virus when he began experiencing confusion and temporary memory loss after being discharged.

Dr Parkar is considered a celebrity doctor in Mumbai, with the late Balasaheb Thackeray, actor Dilip Kumar and Sanjay Dutt, among others, as his patients. “I rarely cry, except when my mother died. But Covid-19 was pure trauma… like seeing death and coming out of it. While I was in the hospital with Covid, I would break down and cry every time a colleague called me,” he said.

In India, doctors have said that several patients have been returning with complaints of prolonged fatigue, headaches, insomnia, shortness of breath, body pain, muscle pain, lack of appetite, sore throat and even diarrhoea, besides mental health issues.

There is also increasing evidence that Covid-19, apart from causing lung, heart and kidney damage, can lead to anxiety, depression, psychosis, insomnia and memory fogs, making a person forgetful and disoriented.

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