![]() Long-term cognitive effects of COVID infection They found persistent impairment in sustained attention - the ability to attend to important information for as long as it is relevant. But what if the COVID illness is not so severe? Can brain damage still occur?Ī Chinese group of doctors and researchers examined several aspects of cognitive function in 29 individuals who were thought to have fully recovered from COVID infection. It is also clear that when patients experience severe illness requiring an ICU stay, brain damage is highly likely to occur, and its effects are typically obvious. It is clear that COVID can cause brain damage by direct infection (encephalitis), by strokes, and by lack of oxygen. Effects due to COVID ICU stays are expected to be similar - a prediction that has already been confirmed by the studies in Britain, Canada, and Finland reviewed above. Commonly observed long-term psychological effects of ICU stays include anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In daily life, such cognitive effects on memory, attention, and executive function can lead to difficulties managing medications, managing finances, comprehending written materials, and even carrying on conversations with friends and family. In survivors of intensive care unit (ICU) stays due to acute respiratory failure or shock from any cause, one-third of people show such a profound degree of cognitive impairment that performance on neuropsychological testing is comparable to those with moderate traumatic brain injury. These cells could be related to strokes observed in individuals with COVID-19. In fact, these neuropathologists had never seen megakaryocytes in the brain before, and this observation had never before been reported in the medical literature. Megakaryocytes make platelets - part of the body’s clotting system - and these cells should not be there. In one patient there was loss of taste, and in two there was “minimal respiratory distress,” but none of these patients were thought to have any brain damage while alive.Ī new study by doctors from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School found that large cells called megakaryocytes may be found in the brain capillaries of individuals who died from COVID-19 infection. Particularly worrisome is that several of the patients who were autopsied did not show any signs of brain injury during the course of their COVID infection - yet all had brain damage. A group of Canadian doctors found that individuals over 70 years of age were at particularly high risk for stroke related to COVID infection, but even young individuals are seven times more likely to have a stroke from this coronavirus versus a typical flu virus.Īutopsy data from COVID patients in Finland suggests that another major cause of brain damage is lack of oxygen. In fact, COVID infection is a risk factor for strokes. This study also found that a number of patients with COVID suffered strokes. In one British study of 12 patients with encephalitis, one made a full recovery, 10 made a partial recovery, and one died. ![]() How COVID damages the brainĬOVID can cause damage to the brain directly by encephalitis, which may have devastating or subtle consequences. Particularly troubling is increasing evidence that there may be mild - but very real - brain damage that occurs in many survivors, causing pervasive yet subtle cognitive, behavioral, and psychological problems. However, new research is now suggesting that there may be long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. Sometimes the neurological manifestations can be devastating and can even lead to death. Doctors in a large Chicago medical center found that more than 40% of patients with COVID showed neurologic manifestations at the outset, and more than 30% of those had impaired cognition. It has become increasingly recognized, however, that the virus also attacks the nervous system. Most of these deaths are due to the well-known pulmonary complications of the coronavirus. ![]() The COVID pandemic has now claimed as many American lives as World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined.
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