“Brain Fog”: People struggling to think clearly months after Covid | World News

In the case of Mirabai Nicholson-McKellar, Covid-19 resulted in an onslaught of symptoms from chest pain to 11 days of migraine, three positive test results, and length of hospital stay.

Seven months later, the roller coaster isn’t over yet. A 36-year-old woman living in Byron Bay, Australia, still has symptoms, including difficulty thinking, often referred to as “brain fog.”

“Brain fog seems to be such an inferior explanation of what is really happening. It’s completely crippled. I can’t think clearly enough. [do] “Anything,” said Nicholson-McKellar, adding that the experience would be better described as cognitive impairment.

The result is enormous, she says.

“I can’t work more than an hour or two a day, and even leaving home to shop can be difficult,” she says. “When I get tired, it gets worse, and sometimes all I can do is lie down in bed and watch TV.” She says the fog in the brain makes her forgetful and burns the pot while cooking.

“It often prevents me from having consistent conversations and writing text messages and emails,” she adds. “I feel like my shadow before. I’m not alive now, I just exist.”

Nicholson-McKellar is not alone.

Dr. Michael Zandy, a consultant at the UCL Queen Square Neurology Institute, says he saw a patient living with brain fog for several months. Some have been admitted to hospitals and intensive care units in Covid, but Zandy says cases are now being seen among people who have dealt with Covid at home.

“The percentage of people who develop cognitive symptoms over a period of time as a result of Covid-19 is unknown and is the focus of current research, but in some studies it can be up to 20%,” he says. ..

One difficulty in tackling “brain fog” is that the term itself is hazy.

“It’s not a medical term, it’s what people put out there,” says Dr. Ross Patterson of the Queen Square Institute. “What are these symptoms, and they are [are] Very simply, no one has done any research yet, so whatever is measurable. “

Zandy agrees that difficulty in thinking and concentration has been previously reported by patients with other conditions, including the autoimmune disease lupus.

“Doctors and scientists don’t always use it. [brain fog] As a diagnosis, it doesn’t tell you exactly what the problem is and what might be causing it, “says Zandy.

Dr. Wilfred Van Gope, a former president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology, said that many Covid survivors seen in brain fog range from headaches to loud noise tolerance and emotional control difficulties. He states that he has a problem.

“Complaints are very similar [those of] “Patients after a concussion,” he added, adding that there are similarities in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Zandy says that Covid survivors can have many causes of brain fog, from inflammation of the body to lack of oxygen to the brain. The latter is of particular concern to those who spend time on ventilators.

Zandy adds that laboratory dish experiments suggest that the virus can infect the brain. Blocks the supply of oxygen to cells adjacent to them – The work has not been peer reviewed yet.

And Patterson, although the study is small, has evidence from Covid patients hospitalized with severe neurological syndrome that the coronavirus can affect the nervous system, of neuroinflammation and protective coatings of nerve cells. It states that it can cause problems such as damage.

Psychological factors may also be present, especially among Covid survivors who have spent time on intensive care. “That’s very scary,” says Zandy.

Dr. Nick Gray, a consultant and clinical psychologist at the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said that terms similar to “brain fog” used to include extreme fatigue, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Said it was used in connection with the condition. This is thought to affect about a quarter of Covid survivors receiving intensive care.

And there’s another possibility, says Patterson.

“Are people who get sick, trapped, anxious, or unable to sleep well are more likely to have migraine headaches?”

Gray emphasizes that both psychological and biological mechanisms can potentially work.

“It will take a lot of careful research to break apart what’s happening there,” he says.

Scientists have already formed a partnership called CoroNerve to investigate the neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of Covid-19. In another study, Paterson and colleagues examined blood and spinal fluid collected from Covid patients hospitalized for neurological symptoms. Covid without such problems, and a healthy individual.

He says the purpose of the new study is to investigate whether even people without neurological symptoms show markers of neurological damage and how much of the process is underway.

Like Nicholson-McKellar, Melanie Montano, 32, from New Jersey, USA, is part of the Body Politic Covid-19 support group on social media site Slack and was Covid-positive in March.

Approximately two weeks after her symptoms began, a fog in the brain began, hindering her work as a writer and educator, and struggling to clarify and remember details. That’s especially a problem, as she’s applying for a new job, according to Montano.

“I’m just in this haze-like mind that’s always autopiloting,” she says.

Vangope states that there is currently little research on brain fog, but suggests that exercise to improve cognitive function may help, as do drugs such as the ADHD drug Ritalin. ..

Others say they have a reason for hope.

“What we don’t know is how long it will last,” says Zandy. “But we have seen patients who are getting better and functioning.”