No Tsunami of Mental Illness Accompanies Covid-19
Why did the media get a scientific study so wrong? Because they mostly relied on friends of the authors to interpret the peer-reviewed paper.
Inaccurate portrayal of a Lancet Psychiatry paper in the media points to more pervasive problems in the quality of the reporting of scientific findings.
In my last article (Debunking 1 in 5 COVID-19 Patients Develop Mental Illness), I debunked a claim circulating around the world — that a Lancet Psychiatry study found 1 in 5 COVID-19 patients would become mentally ill in the first 3 months after diagnosis.
Researchers drew on the electronic health records (EHRs) from a US managed health care system to match 62,354 patients COVID-19 with patients with 6 other medical diagnoses.
Claims about mental illness were based on recording in the electronic health records of mental health diagnoses 14–90 days after diagnosis of COVID-19 or the comparison health conditions. These diagnoses of mental…
