COVID can cause brain fog, dementia two years after infection — study
People who’ve had COVID-19 face increased risks of neurological and psychiatric conditions like brain fog, psychosis, seizures and dementia up two years after infection.
Driving the news: That’s according to a new large-scale University of Oxford study that also found anxiety and depression were more common after COVID, though typically subsided within two months of infection.
Why it matters: The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal on Wednesday, is the “first to attempt to examine some of the heterogeneity of persistent neurological and psychiatric aspects of COVID-19 in a large dataset,” according to an accompanying editorial.
- “The results have important implications for patients and health services as it suggests new cases of neurological conditions linked to COVID-19 infection are likely to occur for a considerable time after the pandemic has subsided,” per a statement from study lead author Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry.
By the numbers: Researchers examined the risks of 14 different disorders in more than 1.25 million patients, ranging from children to seniors who were mostly in the U.S., two years on from COVID infection and compared them with electronic records some 1.25 million people affected by other respiratory infections.
Worth noting: Researchers found children were twice as likely to develop epilepsy or seizures (260 in 10,000) within two years of a COVID infection, compared to those who’d had other respiratory infections (130 in 10,000).
- The risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder also increased, though occurrence was still rare — 18 in 10,000.
The bottom line, via Harrison: The findings highlight the need for more research to understand why such neurological conditions are occurring after COVID “and what can be done to prevent or treat these conditions.”
Go deeper… Long COVID: The next health care crisis
