A PERSPECTIVE OF POST COVID-19 SYMPTOMS AND MENTAL HEALTH

Ramna Zia, Zahra Arshad, Hina Batool, Kaneez Fatima, Syed Abdul Qadir Shah , Muhammad Zaid

Abstract

The symptoms of COVID-19 are acute and mostly people recovered from these after a specific time period. Although, a considerable percentage of patients around the globe were affected but Per our knowledge, study of post covid- 19 associated mental health symptoms found scarce. The present study was organized to inspect the frequency of long-term anosmia, parosmia, odynophagia and associated mental health issues in the Pakistani population. A 5-month study was collected via an online questionnaire and phone calls among patients infected from March 2020 to February 2021. This study included a total of 124 patients with COVID-19 RT-PCR positive test. It was recorded by this survey that almost 13% of cases were with long-term anosmia, 81% with parosmia after short-term anosmia, and 79%with odynophagia. The level of depression and anxiety among patients suffering from long-term parosmia was significantly higher in participants than in anosmia. Most shockingly, a large fraction of respondents showed self-medication during the COVID-19 infection leading to the misuse of antibiotics, especially azithromycin, as medical treatment. To summarize, anosmia, parosmia and
odynophagia are prominent, persistent symptoms of COVID-19 disease in the Pakistani population leading to associated mental health issues. There’s a dire need for detailed research and proper awareness campaigns through different platforms about long-covid and medical treatment to avoid further health and psychological
problems.