Neurological and psychiatric complications 6 months after COVID-19 recovery

Prolonged symptoms and health outcomes in patients with recovered coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are increasingly reported. Some people experience many persistent symptoms months after an attack of the disease, from chronic fatigue to dyspnea to “brain fog.”

However, there is currently a lack of data on the neurological and psychiatric outcomes of patients who have recovered from COVID-19.

To address this, researchers at the University of Oxford and the NHS Foundation Trust at Oxford University Hospital in the United Kingdom found that the prevalence of patients experiencing neurological and mental conditions 6 months after recovery from COVID-19. Aimed to decide.

The team estimated the incidence of International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10) diagnoses 6 months after being diagnosed with COVID-19. These conditions include intracranial hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Parkinsonism, radiculopathy, muscle disease, dementia, encephalitis, anxiety, psychotic disorders, substance misuse, and insomnia. Was there.

Researchers announced their findings in a preprint medRxiv*server.

Persistent COVID-19 Symptoms and Results

The increasing number of recovered COVID-19 patients showing neurological and psychiatric sequelae months after infection highlights the need for further research and follow-up among convalescent people.

COVID-19 “Long-distance carrier” is described as a patient who has recovered from the infection but persists months after the onset of symptoms. Previous studies also investigated the incidence of recovered patients at high risk of neuropathy.

These studies are based on the results of other findings Coronavirus Then followed the case series. There were similar concerns about the psychiatric sequelae of COVID-19. Evidence showed that survivors were at increased risk of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and dementia for the first three months of infection with SARS-CoV-2.

the study

Researchers used a retrospective cohort study and time-to-event analysis to estimate the incidence of ICD-10 diagnosis 6 months after COVID-19 was detected.

The researchers obtained data from the TriNetX electronic health record network, which includes more than 81 million patients. They used the Cox model to compare the incidence with patients with influenza or other respiratory infections.

The team also analyzed whether encephalopathy in hospital and during acute COVID-19 affects these risks.

The results of the study showed that 236,379 patients recovered from COVID-19. Of these, the approximate incidence of neurological or psychiatric sequelae at 6 months was 33.6 percent. About 12.8 percent of these patients received the initial diagnosis of these conditions.

In addition, the team found that most diagnoses were more common after COVID-19 than after suffering from influenza or stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, psychotic disorders, dementia and other respiratory infections. Did.

The team also found that hospitalized people with COVID-19 and encephalopathy were more likely to develop neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Potential mechanisms of this association include viral invasion of the central nervous system, hypercoagulability, and the neural effects of the immune response. On the other hand, it is also noteworthy that the incidence of these diagnoses increased even in cases of COVID-19 that did not require hospitalization, “the researchers explained.

Although we used a large sample size in this study, electronic medical records may be incomplete, with sparse information on lifestyle and socio-economic factors and lack of diagnostic validation. I admit that.

Nonetheless, this study highlighted the potential scale of post-viral neurological and psychiatric sequelae. Further research is needed to enhance the validity of the findings.

*Important Notices

medRxiv Publish preliminary scientific reports that should not be considered definitive as they are not peer-reviewed, guide clinical practice / health-related behaviors, and should not be treated as established information.