A systematic review to find link between past psychiatric history and development of long covid

Covid-19 is a pandemic acute infectious disease that emerged in 2019. It is estimated that 10-20% will develop persistent symptoms, known as long Covid or post-Covid syndrome. The risk factors for the development of this syndrome are still being studied. Psychosocial factors are known to increase the duration and severity of respiratory infections.

(i) to review current knowledge of the link between past psychiatric history and the development of long Covid; (ii) to obtain information on the psychological experience of the initial infection; (iii) to establish a link between the presence of psychiatric symptoms during the acute phase and the development of long Covid.

We conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA standards using the Pubmed, Science Direct and Scopus databases. We included observational studies of adult subjects with long Covid whose psychiatric and/or addictive histories were searched.

A total of 36 articles were included in our review. Depression and anxiety appear to be risk factors for the development of long Covid. There is no consensus on the contribution of smoking to the onset of the syndrome. The negative psychological experience of the acute infection favours the persistence of symptoms. Psychological symptoms during the acute phase, studied in only one of our articles, seem to contribute to the persistence of concentration and attention problems.

Psychological comorbidities pre-existing COVID-19 infection, in particular depression and anxiety, as well as a poor psychological experience of the acute phase, may favour the development of long Covid.

PROSPERO registration number CRD42023391720.