Neurological Problems Reported In 55% Of COVID-19 Patients

And many “long-haulers,” or COVID-19 patients who have continued showing symptoms for months after the initial infection passed, report neurological problems such as confusion and difficulty concentrating (or brain fog), as well as headaches, extreme fatigue, mood changes, insomnia and loss of taste and/or smell.

Indeed, the CDC recently warned that it takes longer to recover from COVID-19 than the 10- to 14-day quarantine window that has been touted throughout the pandemic. In fact, one in five young adults under 34 was not back to their usual health up to three weeks after testing positive. And 35% of surveyed U.S. adults overall had not returned to their normal state of health when interviewed two to three weeks after testing.

Now a study of 60 COVID-19 patients published in Lancet this week finds that 55% of them were still displaying such neurological symptoms during follow-up visits three months later. And when doctors compared brain scans of these 60 COVID patients with those of a control group who had not been infected, they found that the brains of the COVID patients showed structural changes that correlated with memory loss and smell loss.

And that’s not exclusive to adults. A case study published in JAMA Neurology in June highlighted four U.K. children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a severe and potentially fatal condition that appears to be linked to COVID-19. These children developed neurological manifestations such as headaches, muscle weakness, confusion and disorientation. While two of the kids recovered, the other two continued to show symptoms, including muscle weakness so severe that they needed a wheelchair.

Scientists are only just beginning to understand the ways in which the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 19 million people globally and killed 715,000 and counting attacks the body.

Indeed, the most severe illness and complications appear to stem from the body’s immune response to the viral invader, as opposed to the virus itself causing damage. And some preliminary studies suggest that this immune response could damage the nervous system.

The University College of London warned about a potential brain damage “epidemic” caused by COVID-19 in the journal Brain last month. The study examined 43 COVID patients treated in London in April and May, and found 10 cases of “temporary brain dysfunction” and delirium; 12 cases of brain inflammation; eight cases of strokes; and eight cases of nerve damage.

“We should be vigilant and look out for these complications in people who have had COVID-19,” said joint senior author Dr. Michael Zandi in a statement. “Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic — perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic — remains to be seen.”

There is some precedent for a pandemic creating a wave of neurological health problems. Svenn-Erik Mamelund, a social scientist who has studied the demography of epidemic diseases for more than 20 years, told Yahoo that there was a jump in reports of neurological and psychiatric problems worldwide for years after the 1918 flu pandemic. Survivors complained of trouble sleeping, dizziness, depression and difficulties at work. And many people reported similar neurological symptoms after the 1889 Russian flu and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

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