Cognitive impact of COVID-19

Overview: The pattern of cognitive impairment suffered by people infected with COVID-19 was similar to that of sleep-deprived healthy people. were correlated.

sauce: University of Western Ontario

A new long-term study led by neuroscientists at Western University shows that short-term symptoms of COVID-19, such as difficulty breathing, fever and dry cough, are just the tip of the iceberg.

Findings published by cell report medicinereveal the potential for short- and long-term cognitive impairment in people infected with COVID-19.

Using robust datasets collected by participants using Cambridge Brain Sciences’ online scientific research tool, principal investigators Adrian Owen and Conor Wild explored the reasoning, thinking, and reasoning of patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19. We found significant impairments in speed, language ability, but no loss. In-memory function.

“The pattern of cognitive impairment in these COVID-19 patients resembles that of sleep-deprived healthy study participants,” said Owen, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western University Schurich School of Medicine and Dentistry. says.

In 2017, Owen and Wild used the same online scientific research tool to conduct the world’s largest study of sleep, involving more than 40,000 participants.

In the COVID-19 Brain Study, Western, University of Cambridge, Sunnybrook Health Science Center, Owen, Wilde and coworkers at University of Ottawa evaluated about 500 people about three months after a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. .

Participants’ COVID-19 experience ranged from ‘very mild’ to ‘ICU on ventilation’. Researchers found that the severity of cognitive impairment was directly related to the severity of the original infection.

“The worse a patient’s COVID-19 symptoms are, the worse their cognitive impairment,” said Dr. Wild, a Schurich medical and dental researcher, noting that even mildly infected individuals had significant impairment. Did.

Researchers recruited thousands of participants for the study. But testing for COVID-19 was so sparse in the early days of the pandemic (the study began in June 2020) that it was difficult to know who got COVID-19 and who might have. I couldn’t confirm if it was someone who just thought I was sexual. As a result, Owen and Wild chose to focus on her 478 individuals who reported having had a medically confirmed case of COVID-19.

The study also found that the degree of cognitive impairment was not related to the elapsed time from COVID-19 infection to assessment, suggesting that they may be long-lasting.

“Disturbances were not minor in individuals up to 3 months post-infection, suggesting that these effects may not subside in the short term,” said Wild.

Impact on mental health

Participants in the COVID-19 Brain Study had significantly elevated levels of depression and anxiety, with 30% meeting one or both clinical criteria.

“These effects on mental health are independent of the severity of the original infection or cognitive impairment, suggesting that they may be the result of surviving the pandemic itself rather than the result of COVID-19 infection.” We are doing it,” said Dr. Richard. He’s Dr. Swartz from Sunnybrook Health Science Center.

The results of this study are the result of much larger studies emerging in Western, including researchers at the Western Neuroscience Institute (WIN), BrainsCAN, the Imaging Pathogens for Knowledge Translation (ImPaKT) facility, and research partners across the campus. It is an important first step in a large research program. Cognitive impairment, disease progression and mitigation, and his COVID social inequalities over time.

About this perception and COVID-19 research news

author: Jeff Renaud
sauce: University of Western Ontario
contact: Jeff Renaud – University of Western Ontario
image: image is public domain

See also

Original research: open access.
“Untangling the cognitive, physical, and mental health aftereffects of COVID-19” Conor J. Wild et al. cell report medicine

Overview

Untangling the cognitive, physical, and mental health aftereffects of COVID-19

highlight

• COVID-19 survivors show cognitive differences in specific areas
• Processing speed, verbal, and reasoning are affected, but memory function is not.
• Performance in affected domains is related to physical health, but not mental health
• These effects are observed in mild and hospitalized cases of COVID-19.

Overview

COVID-19 cases have exceeded hundreds of millions worldwide, and many survivors face cognitive impairment and long-lasting symptoms.

However, important questions about the cognitive impact of COVID-19 remain unresolved. In this cross-sectional online survey, 478 adult volunteers who self-reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 (mean = 30 days after most recent test) performed better on processing speed, reasoning, and verbal cognitive measures. , showing significantly worse results than the pre-pandemic baseline. , and overall performance, but suggest domain-specific deficits rather than short-term memory. Cognitive differences are also observed in participants who did not require hospitalization.

A factor analysis of health and COVID-related questionnaires revealed two symptom clusters, one that varied primarily by physical symptoms and disease severity, and one that varied by mental health.

Cognitive performance is positively correlated with global measures that include physical symptoms, but does not explain mental health broadly, suggesting that subjective experiences of ‘long-term COVID’ correlated with physical symptoms and cognitive impairment, particularly suggesting that it is associated with executive dysfunction.