Slike Taylor, who contracted covid-19 in the spring of 2020, had not recovered from the disease even after a year and a half, when he killed himself in his home near Dallas. This 56-year-old was left without health, memory and money.
"No one cares. No one wants to take the time to hear me,” Taylor wrote in a final message to a friend, referring to the plight of millions of people with long-term covid, which can last months or years after initial infection.
"I can't even do laundry without being completely exhausted and in pain along my entire spine. I have dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. It seems like I'm talking about something, and I have no idea what,” Taylor added.
Long-term Covid is a complex medical condition that can be difficult to diagnose because it has more than 200 symptoms - some of which can resemble other illnesses - from exhaustion and impaired cognitive function to pain, fever and palpitations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The potential long-term effects of covid-19 are quite unclear, and governments and scientists are only now beginning to systematically study the area as they emerge from a pandemic that caught much of the world off guard.
There are no reliable data on the frequency among patients. Scientists are trying to study a potential link after evidence of increased cases of depression and suicidal thoughts in people with long-term Covid, as well as an increase in the number of known deaths, reports Reuters.
"I am sure that long-term covid is associated with suicidal thoughts, with suicide attempts, with suicide plans and the risk of suicide. It's just that we don't have epidemiological data," he said Leo Sher, a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, who studies mood disorders and suicidal behavior.
Among the key questions researchers are now examining are whether the risk of suicide potentially increases among patients as the virus changes the biology of the brain, whether the loss of their ability to function as before pushes people over the edge, as can happen with other long-term health conditions.
An analysis conducted for Reuters by the Seattle firm Truveta found that patients with long-term covid were almost twice as likely to be prescribed an antidepressant for the first time within 90 days of their initial covid diagnosis compared to people who only got covid.
The analysis is based on data from 200 major US hospital systems, including more than 1,3 million adults diagnosed with Covid and 19.000 diagnosed with long-term Covid between May 2020 and July 2022.
"We don't know the scale of the problem"
The potential long-term effects of covid-19 are quite unclear, and governments and scientists are only now beginning to systematically study the area as they emerge from a pandemic that caught much of the world off guard.
While a large proportion of Covid patients recover over time, about 15 percent are still experiencing symptoms after 12 months, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Reuters adds that there is no proven therapy and that symptoms can disable sufferers from work.
In a Reuters analysis, it is stated that the consequences of long-term covid that could be associated with an increased risk of mental illness and suicide are serious and that, in America alone, the condition has affected up to 23 million people.
The lingering Covid-4,5 has also put roughly 2,4 million people out of work, equal to XNUMX percent of the U.S. workforce, she told Congress in July. Katie Vienna from the Brookings Institution.
Worldwide, nearly 150 million people contracted long-term covid during the first two years of the pandemic, according to IHME estimates.
In many developing countries, insufficient monitoring of Covid further clouds the picture, he said Murad Khan, a professor of psychiatry at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, who is part of an international panel of experts studying the risk of suicide associated with Covid-19.
Critical point
Time is precious for the growing number of long-term Covid sufferers who say they are running out of hope and money, according to interviews by a Reuters reporter with several dozen patients, family members and medical professionals.
For Taylor, who lost his job selling genomic tests to doctors in a round of layoffs in the summer of 2020, the tipping point came when his insurance through his former employer was about to expire and his Social Security claim was denied, his family said.
"That was the last straw," his older brother said Mark Taylor.
Heidi Ferrer, a 50-year-old screenwriter from Kansas, killed herself in May 2021 because she was unable to walk or sleep due to tremors and pain after contracting Covid more than a year earlier, her husband said Nick Gut.
Gut, a director who after the death of his wife became a representative of those suffering from long-term covid, said that until last winter he had not heard of suicides within the network of long-term covid sufferers.
"Now they come on a weekly basis," he added.
Survivor Corps, an advocacy group for long-term Covid patients, said it conducted a survey of its membership in May and found that 44 percent of nearly 200 respondents said they had thought about suicide.
Lauren Nichols from the Body Politic group for providing support to covid patients, said that through contact with family members on social networks, she found out about more than 50 people with long-term covid who committed suicide.
Nichols (34) said that she herself thought about suicide several times because of the long-term covid, which she had for more than two years.
Long-lasting covid and omicron
The US National Institutes of Health is tracking mental health impacts as part of the $470 million RECOVER study on long-term covid. The first results on anxiety and depression rates are expected this month, but information on suicide will take longer, said Dr. Stuart Katz, lead researcher.
"What we do know is that people with chronic illnesses are prone to suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and suicide attempts," he says. Richard Gallagher, professor of child psychiatry at NYU Langone Health Medical Center, who is part of the RECOVER study.
Asked whether the virus changes the brain, Gallagher said there is some evidence that Covid can cause inflammation of the brain, which is linked to suicide and depression - even among people who have had a relatively mild illness.
Direct and somehow toxic effects of the virus are possible, and part of that will be inflammation," he said.
Long-term covid reduces overall health by 21 percent on average - similar to total deafness or traumatic brain injury, according to data from the Washington-based IHME.
Although some experts expected omicron to be less likely to cause long-term covid, official British data released this month showed that 34 percent of the country's two million long-term covid sufferers developed symptoms after being infected with omicron.
Long-term incapacitating health conditions can increase the risk of suicide, hence the concern about prolonged covid
A UK government advisory group is studying the suicide risk of long-term Covid patients compared to the general population, while the country's Office for National Statistics (ONS) is investigating whether it can predict suicide risk in long-term Covid patients in the same way it does for people with other conditions. diseases, such as cancer.
"Health conditions that disable in the long term can increase the risk of suicide, hence the concern about long-term covid," he said. Louis Appleby, professor of psychiatry at the University of Manchester and adviser to the UK government.
Reuters points out that research in Britain and Spain has found a sixfold increased risk of suicide among patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), another post-viral illness with similar symptoms to long-term Covid, compared to the general population.
Britain's network of long-term covid treatment centers is also drastically overstretched, which is adding to the sense of hopelessness for some; in June, only a third of patients received an appointment within six weeks of being referred by a local doctor, and another third had to wait more than 15 weeks.
Rut Oshikanlu, a former midwife and community nurse in London, said health problems with long-secretive Covid, along with other adversities, pushed her to the brink. When her business temporarily collapsed due to debt problems after she was unable to work, she thought her life was over.
"What covid gives you is a lot of time to think. I didn't think about putting an end to it, fortunately, for my son's sake. But I know so many people who had those suicidal thoughts," said the 48-year-old.
Bonus video:
