CIDRAP (3/12, Van Beusekom) reported a research letter published in JAMA Network Open suggests that the majority of COVID-19 survivors have “symptoms of major depressive disorder months after recovery.” The researchers “analyzed internet-based nonprobability survey and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) responses from 82,319 adult coronavirus survivors delivered in eight waves from June 2020 to January 2021.”

Related Links:

— “Half of COVID survivors note lingering signs of depression “Mary Van Beusekom, CIDRAP News, March 12, 2021

CNN (3/11, Maxouris, Sanchez, Almasy, McPhillips) reports one year after the WHO declared a pandemic, 10% of the U.S. population is vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. According to the CDC’s website, “at least 33.9 million Americans are protected with either a one-dose or two-dose vaccine.”

Related Links:

— “One year after the pandemic was declared, 1 in 10 Americans have been fully vaccinated “Christina Maxouris, Ray Sanchez, Steve Almasy and Deidre McPhillips, CNN, March 11, 2021

HealthDay (3/11, Preidt, Mundell) reports, “The trauma and loss of stroke can often leave survivors with long-term depression, and women appear to be at special risk,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from Medicare patients aged 65 and older who were hospitalized for either ischemic stroke (more than 174,000) or heart attack (more than 193,000) from July 2016 to Dec. 31, 2017,” then following patients “for an average of 1.5 years.” The findings are set for presentation “later this month at the virtual American Stroke Association’s annual meeting.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Often Follows Stroke, and Women Are at Higher Risk “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 11, 2021

The Hill (3/11, Coleman) reports that more than “20 percent of health care workers worldwide have experienced depression and anxiety amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Wednesday” in PLOS One. A meta-analysis of 65 studies “surveying more than 97,000 people between December 2019 and August 2020 concluded that 21.7 percent of health care workers have experienced depression and 22.1 percent have experienced anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis.” Researchers “averaged the results of nine of these studies to predict that 21.5 percent of health care workers worldwide have reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Related Links:

— “More than 20 percent of health care workers experience depression, anxiety amid pandemic: study ” Justine Coleman, The Hill, March 11, 2021

HealthDay (3/10, Mann) reports, “Sustaining just one head injury may up your chances of developing dementia decades later by 25%, and this risk increases with each subsequent head injury,” investigators concluded after analyzing “25 years of data on more than 14,000 people in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.” The study also revealed that “a history of two or more head injuries was associated with more than two times the risk of developing dementia 25 years later.” The findings were published online in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Related Links:

— “Even 1 Concussion May Raise Your Odds for Dementia Later ” Denise Mann, HealthDay, March 10, 2021