Depression and Anxiety May Be Risk Factors for Severe Covid-19
Medical comorbidities include mental health disorders
As of today, there have been 40 million cases of and 1 million deaths from Covid-19 worldwide. The combination of a growing aging population, a highly contagious virus, international travel, indoor crowding, socioeconomic inequities, and increasing prevalence of comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease has proved to be deadly.
A less obvious comorbidity
Comorbidities are medical conditions that co-occur. They are often chronic (or long term) and associated with unfavorable health outcomes. For instance, people with obesity and/or diabetes are at higher risk of greater Covid-19 severity than otherwise disease-free people. The more comorbidities a person carries, the worse their health outcomes tend to be.
Common comorbidities include diabetes, cancers, and diseases of the heart, lung, kidney, or liver. But there are also psychiatric comorbidities, characterized by disordered neural…
