The study found that contrary to the notion that the Omicron variant is mild, Omicron is associated with similar neurological and psychiatric risks as Delta that the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared a variant of concern.
“The Delta variant was associated with more disorders than the previous Alpha variant. Omicron was associated with similar neurological and psychiatric risks as Delta,” said the first large-scale study done to look at the risk of neurological and mental health conditions after Covid-19 and to assess how the risks change with the emergence of new variants.
The researchers found that children were more likely to be diagnosed with some conditions, including seizures and psychotic disorders. The study analysed data on 14 neurological and psychiatric diagnoses taken from electronic health records from the US over a two-year period.
The study covered 1,284,437 people who had confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infection on or after January 20, 2020, including 185,748 children aged under 18 years, 856,588 people between 18 and 64 years old, and 242,101 people over 65. They were matched to an equal number of patients with another respiratory infection to act as a control group.