COVID-19 and psychiatry: can electronic medical records provide the answers?, Lancet Psychiatry

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for health-care professionals, researchers, and policy makers, particularly in the area of serious mental illness. From the beginning of the pandemic, psychiatric symptoms have complicated medical care and contributed to morbidity and mortality.1 Conversely, individuals with serious mental illness are known to have a high prevalence of comorbid conditions associated with symptomatic COVID-19, including obesity, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes.2 Many individuals with psychiatric disorders also live in social conditions that result in high exposure to respiratory viruses, including seasonal coronaviruses.3 The sheer size and changing nature of the pandemic poses problems for investigators and policy planners investigating COVID-19 exposure and psychiatric disorders. This is particularly true in the USA, where the response to the pandemic has been hampered by the lack of a national medical care system and a patchwork of state and local public health agencies responsible for data collection and disease surveillance.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news