The complex manifestations of COVID-19 include psychiatric symptoms, having multifaceted profiles with varying severity during the acute phase and further during the recovery period. Limited data exist which have analyzed whether there are any age-related differences. A study lot of 89 COVID-19 patients with mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring hospitalization for mental issues provided comparative data from two age groups below and above 60 years. The majority of patients had new onset of a mental issue during COVID-19, 24.7% of the total lot being diagnosed with depressive disorder. The senior patient set had a significantly higher prevalence of sleep disorder vs. the younger study group (53.3 vs. 28.8%), depression (33.3 vs. 10.2%) and cognitive impairment (26.7 vs. 8.5%), while patients <60 years of age had a higher prevalence of hallucinations, delirium and bizarre behavior. Psychiatric manifestations are an important part of the symptomatology of COVID-19, sometimes requiring hospitalization. Age-related neuropsychiatric substrate could explain some of these differences between the two study subgroups. Further data are needed to complete the acute and long-term distinctive profiles of COVID-19-related mental illness in older and younger patients.
Keywords: COVID-19; cognitive impairment; depression; elderly; immuno-senescence; psychiatric manifestations; sleep disorder.
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