Long Covid to Diminish Cognitive Abilities

A recent study in UK, conducted on more than 80,000 people who took an intelligence test online, revealed that people who have recovered from Covid-10 could possibly suffer from significant cognitive deficit. This phenomenon is being termed as ‘Long Covid Brain Fog’ by experts across the globe. More research is being conducted to offer subsequent scientific basis to the anecdotal evidence.

This research study, published in The Lancet’s E Clinical Medicine Journal, corroborates on many such findings which are resulting from multiple scientific and clinical studies: the Sars-CoV-2 virus impacts the brain, and its repercussions can be long-lasting and can be felt long after the patient recovers. The cognitive deficits can persist into the recovery phase for a prolonged period.

It has been found that deficit in cognition was worse among patients who suffered from severe respiratory symptoms and among those who turned out positive in a covid test. The researchers calibrated their analysis to account for difference based on age, gender, education, pre-existing medical disorders, depressions, anxiety and other demographic and socio-economic variables to discard any biases into the results.

Another study, led by neuroscientists and researchers in Oxford university, covered detailed analysis of the brain scans of people before and after they contracted Covid-19. The study found that in over 400 people, there was a significant loss of grey matter that indicates some amount of brain damage and damage to the areas that involved functions related to taste, cognition and memory formation.

A team of scientists and clinicians attending the 2021 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference presented findings from Greece and Argentina that Covid-19 resulted cognitive impairments in older adults, including lack of smell and early Alzheimer-like symptoms.

These findings across the world and subsequent surge in Covid cases owing to the new Omicron variant calls for a more detailed and deep understanding of the long-term neurological impacts of Covid-19.