Persistent effects of severe COVID-19 on brain equal to 20 years old, UK study | Health

A UK study reported Tuesday that the persistent effects of severe COVID-19 infection on the brain in areas such as memory, attention, and problem-solving could be as high as 20 years of age.

A new study led by a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London Severe COVID-19 Similar to what is maintained between the ages of 50 and 70, which is equivalent to losing 10 IQ points.

“Cognitive impairment is common Widespread neuropathyThe pattern we saw-the cognitive “fingerprint” of COVID-19-was different from all of these, including dementia and even routine aging, “said Professor David Menon of the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Cambridge. I am saying. Senior author of the study.

Studies published in the journal eClinical Medicine show that the effects are detectable and recovery is very gradual, more than 6 months after the acute illness. (Read again: Coronavirus: Covid-19 Food Fact Checking During Care).

“Thousands of people have experienced Intensive care with COVID-19 In the UK alone, and more people will be very ill, they will not be hospitalized, “said Adam Hampshire, a professor of brain science at Imperial College London.

“This means that many people are still experiencing cognitive problems after months. We need to urgently consider what we can do to help these people.” He said.

This is the first time such a rigorous assessment and comparison has been made for severe COVID-19 sequelae, according to researchers. There are increasing reports that COVID-19 can cause persistent cognitive and mental health problems, and patients who recover recover from fatigue, “brain fog”, language recall problems, sleep disorders, anxiety, and more. Has reported symptoms including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) months after infection.

The researchers behind the latest study analyzed data on COVID-19 from 46 people who received in-hospital care in the ward or intensive care unit, 16 of whom wore a ventilator during hospitalization.

All patients were admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge between March and July 2020 and were ill using the Cognitron platform to measure various aspects of mental abilities such as memory, attention, and reasoning. I took a cognitive test after an average of 6 months. ..

Scales for measuring anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders were also evaluated. Then I compared the data to the matching controls.

Analysis of the data revealed that survivors of COVID-19 were less accurate and had slower response times than the corresponding control population. These deficits were also detectable when the patient followed up after 6 months.

“We followed some patients by 10 months after the acute infection, so we were able to see a very slow improvement. This was not statistically significant, but at least. We are heading in the right direction, but it is very likely that some of these individuals will not fully recover, “says Professor Menon.

The effect was strongest for those who needed a ventilator. Survivors scored particularly low on tasks such as verbal analogy, a finding that supports the commonly reported problem of difficulty finding words.

They also showed slower processing speeds. This is consistent with previous post-COVID-19 observations of reduced cerebral glucose consumption within the frontal parietal network of the brain, which is involved in functions such as attention, complex problem solving, and working memory.

Although the study examined hospitalized cases, the team states that even patients who are not ill enough to be hospitalized may have obvious signs of mild disability.

This study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Health (NIHR) BioResource, NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Center, and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust.

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