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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2025; 15(12): 109680
Published online Dec 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.109680
Published online Dec 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.109680
Risk of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in COVID-19 survivors: A multicenter retrospective cohort study using electronic health records
Majed Ramadan, Department of Population Health, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 22490, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Lara Malaka, Remaz Ghabrah, Aljodi Sulimani, Farah Aljadani, Lama Al Dosari, College of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 22490, Makkah al Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia
Rawiah Alsiary, Department of Cancer, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Jeddah 22490, Makkah al Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Ramadan M conceptualized and designed the study, drafted the manuscript, supervised data collection, and oversaw the analytical strategy; Ramadan M and Alsiary R developed the methodological framework, verified analytic consistency, and contributed to interpretation of the qualitative data; Malaka L, Ghabrah R, Sulimani A, Aljadani F, and Al Dosari L contributed to data collection, transcription, preliminary coding, participated in literature review, coding validation, and theme refinement; all authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (Approval No. SPJ24/008/7).
Informed consent statement: This is a retrospective study, the requirement for informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Access to the data may be subject to institutional or ethical restrictions.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Majed Ramadan, PhD, Senior Researcher, Department of Population Health, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ar Rimayah, Riyadh 22490, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ramadhanm@kaimrc.edu.sa
Received: May 18, 2025
Revised: June 2, 2025
Accepted: October 13, 2025
Published online: December 19, 2025
Processing time: 193 Days and 19.1 Hours
Revised: June 2, 2025
Accepted: October 13, 2025
Published online: December 19, 2025
Processing time: 193 Days and 19.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This multicenter retrospective cohort study used electronic health records from the National Guard Health Affairs system in Saudi Arabia to evaluate long-term neurological and psychiatric outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors. Among 4437 COVID-19 patients matched 1:1 by age and sex with uninfected controls, several conditions - such as cognitive deficit, mood and anxiety disorders, and substance use - were significantly more common up to four years post-infection. This study provides one of the longest follow-up assessments to date and highlights the enduring burden of COVID-19 on brain health, underscoring the need for extended mental and neurological surveillance in affected population.