- New research suggests that people with long COVID can experience cognitive difficulties for months.
- Recent studies have shown that COVID-19’s impact goes far beyond the lungs. The disease also affects other organs, including the brain.
- Scientists are just beginning to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 and long COVID.
In astudypublished in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, researchers found that people with long COVID are experiencing impaired cognition. Participants were tested on memory, language, and reaction times.
Long COVID is described as a coronavirus infection with symptoms that last longer than 12 weeks. Between 10 and 25 percent of people who get COVID-19 are believed to have long COVID.
But iflong COVIDis a respiratory disease, how does it affect your brain? And what can you do about it?
Dr. Santosh Kesari, a neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, and regional medical director of the Research Clinical Institute of Providence Southern California, told Healthline that he wasn’t surprised by the study’s findings.
“This issue happens with many infections, like the common flu or urinary tract infections,” Kesari said. “It’s not related to the virus going into the brain, but it’s inflammation. It can happen throughout the body, and that can cause organ dysfunction, including in the brain, which can affect cognition.”
While inflammation of the brain may be a relatively common symptom of many diseases, long COVID appears to be different.
“Even younger people who typically recover pretty quickly are having these very persistent long-term symptoms from COVID-19,” Kesari said.
Inflammation might not be the only effect long COVID has on the brain. Another unrelated
“They saw a reduction in the volume of certain areas of the brain: the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus, which are connected to smell and to memory,” Kesari said.
Dr. Thomas Gut, director of the Post-COVID Recovery Center at Staten Island University Hospital, told Healthline that “long COVID is still a poorly understood disease.”
Studies such as this one help to shed more light on the disease, but experts agree that more research is needed to confirm these results in a more diverse population.
One such expert isDr. Natalia Covarrubias-Eckardt, inpatient rehabilitation medical director and pain management medical director at Providence St. Jude Medical Center in Orange County, California.
“我担心公司的数据库mation obtained online versus an evaluation by a trained clinician,” Covarrubias-Eckardt told Healthline when asked about the study.
Dr. William Holubek, chief medical officer at University Hospital, agreed, noting that there were biases in the makeup of the study’s participants.
Indeed, the majority of participants were “of White Northern European ethnicity, had attended college/university, and lived in the United Kingdom,” to quote the study itself.
Holubek told Healthline the bias is likely a consequence of “convenience sampling, using only word of mouth, student societies, and social media platforms, resulting in an overwhelmingly large gender bias that is 68 percent women.”
More data is needed, but that doesn’t mean these results don’t tell us anything. People with long COVID are still feeling the cognitive effects of the disease.
What is the treatment outlook for people experiencing symptoms of long COVID?
Long COVID isn’t the first disease to cause inflammation or memory issues.
The cognitive symptoms of long COVID can mimic “diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, various neuropathies, depression, PTSD[post-traumatic stress disorder], and even stroke,” said Gut.
Doctors can look at “similar conditions with similar symptoms and apply those treatments to help those who have ongoing cognitive impairments [from long COVID],” Covarrubias-Eckardt said.
This may or may not mean pharmacological interventions, depending on what doctors believe to be safe for people with long COVID.
“Anti-inflammatory drugs or drugs we use for memory in patients who have dementia could potentially help, but it needs to be studied,” Kesari said.
“I would recommend if someone does have cognitive changes, to be evaluated by a physician or therapist,” Covarrubias-Eckardt said.
There are clinics and programs that specialize in long COVID and COVID-19 recovery. Your doctor can make a referral if you believe you’re experiencing these symptoms.
And preventing long COVID can’t be overemphasized.
“It is critical that everyone follow the safety recommendations set forth by the CDC, including vaccination and booster shots, which are a proven method to keep us all safe and healthier,” Holubek said.