“But I think that a lot of doctors who do their due diligence will say, ‘Let’s do some blood work. Credit: AAPĪt first, your doctor might say it’s too early to know if your symptoms are due to COVID-19 and ask you to keep an eye on things for a few months, Becker said. “Those sorts of things we see a lot, and that’s really why we worry about cognitive function.” If your symptoms are noticeably impacting your life, you shouldn’t wait to speak to a medical professional. Those impacts might show up as new difficulties keeping track of tasks at work, forgetting to take medication, trouble managing finances or issues while driving, Jackson said. There’s no hard rule here, but if you’ve been dealing with mild cognitive symptoms for a few months, Jackson said it’s time to check in with your doctor.īut if your symptoms are noticeably impacting your life, you shouldn’t wait to speak to a medical professional. So, having underlying conditions (like heart disease, hypertension or diabetes) as well as poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle can all contribute to your overall risk for cognitive issues due to COVID-19 or other causes, she explained. So Becker’s team is currently working on a study that compares people who did and didn’t get COVID-19 during the same time period to help tease out the specific cognitive effects of the virus on its own.Īpart from that, “the other risk factors for having cognitive impairments still apply,” Becker said. Of course, the chronic stress of the pandemic e xacerbated or triggered mental health issues in many people. Researchers are still working out whether any underlying factors or other aspects of the pandemic might make it more likely for some people to develop symptoms like these.įor one thing, we do know that mental health issues - particularly depression and anxiety - can contribute to cognitive dysfunction, Jackson said. The severity of a patient’s initial COVID-19 infection doesn’t seem to predict how severe their cognitive symptoms will be afterwards. “So it’s not new that we’re seeing this, but it is unusual (to see these symptoms in) such a young patient population and so many months after having had this infection,” she explained. Other viruses, such as HIV and Epstein-Barr virus, are known to cause cognitive issues in some patients, Becker said. Without adequate treatment, people may have severe issues with their jobs or have to go on disability benefits, Jackson said.īut one thing that’s been puzzling to researchers is that the severity of a patient’s initial COVID-19 infection doesn’t seem to predict how severe their cognitive symptoms will be afterward. He recounted stories of people taking medication multiple times a day because they’d forgotten they had already taken it, of people getting out of their car while it’s still in drive and of a woman who mistakenly introduced herself to a close friend of 15 years as if they’d never met. Post-COVID cognitive issues can cause real issues in people’s lives, Jackson said. How severe are post-COVID cognitive symptoms?
Credit: Chaichan Pramjit /Getty Images/iStockphoto A surprising amount of people still report having issues with memory and ‘brain fog’ for weeks or months after a COVID-19 infection. When those processes aren’t functioning as well, you might have issues starting or ending tasks on time, for instance. “It helps us organize information and problem-solve and multi-task.” Under normal circumstances, your executive functioning acts like “the CEO of the brain,” she explained. Some of the more common cognitive symptoms that doctors see after COVID-19 have to do with executive dysfunction issues, said Jacqueline Becker, clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. How common are cognitive symptoms after COVID-19? “But it is still relatively scary because it was in mildly infected people,” she said. Prof Douaud noted that these changes may be reversible. This amount of damage is equivalent to about one year of normal ageing, Gwenaëlle Douaud, lead author on the study and associate professor in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford said.
New research suggests that even mild COVID-19 can actually damage the brain.
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