Summary: A fresh research reveals that 12-18 weeks after treatment for COVID-19, people show significant cognitive decline close to 20 years of aging. Brain damage markers and diminished brain size can also be seen on MRI scans and blood tests for these patients. The studies suggest that COVID-19 has sustained effects on mental health, even in those without neurological problems.
Important Information:
- COVID-related mental decline peers about 20 years of normal aging.
- After COVID-19, brain scans reveal reduced size and injury in crucial areas.
- Cognitive deficits were present in both neural and non-neurological people.
Origin: University of Liverpool
In the largest study conducted in the UK to day, fresh efforts have been made to understand the brain’s immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19.
The research from academics led by the University of Liverpool alongside King’s College London and the University of Cambridge as part of the COVID-CNS Consortium, which was published in  , Nature Medicine,  , shows that people have worse mental function than matched power members 12-18 weeks after hospitalization as a result of COVID-19.
Interestingly, these results are in line with evidence of abnormally high levels of brain damage proteins in the body as well as decreased mental level in crucial MRI scan areas.
Remarkably, the post-COVID cognitive imbalances seen in this study were equal to twenty years of regular age. These patients had COVID, and they needed hospitalization, so it is important to point out that these results should n’t be too widely generalized to everyone who had lived with COVID.
The clearest proof to date is that COVID you have important effects on brain and mind wellness much after recovering from respiratory problems, and the level of imbalance in all the mental skills tested, as well as the connections to brain damage in the brain scans and blood tests, provide the strongest evidence to date.
The work forms part of the University of Liverpool ‘s , COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study ( COVID-CNS), which addresses the critical need to understand the biological causes and long-term outcomes of neurological and neuropsychiatric complications in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.
Study author , Dr Greta Wood , from the University of Liverpool said:  ,” After hospitalisation with COVID-19 many people report ongoing cognitive symptoms often termed’ brain fog’.
However, it’s still unclear whether there is any biological evidence of cognitive impairment or whether patients will eventually recover.
” In this latest research, we studied 351 COVID-19 patients who required hospitalisation with and without new neurological complications.
” We found that both those with and without acute neurological complications of COVID-19 had worse cognition than would be expected for their age, sex and level of education, based on 3, 000 control subjects.”
Corresponding author , Professor Benedict Michael, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Liverpool said:” COVID-19 is not a condition simply of the lung. The most severely affected patients are frequently those who experience brain complications.
” These findings indicate that hospitalisation with COVID-19 can lead to global, objectively measurable cognitive deficits that can be identified even 12-18 months after hospitalisation.
These persistent cognitive deficits were present in patients who had clinical neurological conditions and who had not received any clinical neurological conditions, demonstrating that COVID-19 alone can result in cognitive impairment without the establishment of a neurological diagnosis.
The association between blood-containing biomarkers of brain injury and the reduced volume of brain regions on MRI suggests that there may be measurable biological mechanisms at play.
Our team is currently looking into whether the mechanisms that we have identified in COVID-19 may be responsible for finding out about findings in other severe infections, such as influenza.
According to Professor Gerome Breen of King’s College London,” Long term research is now crucial to understand how these patients recover or who might worsen, and to determine whether this is a condition that is unique to COVID-19 or a common brain injury with other infections.
Significantly, our work can aid in the development of both comparable studies on those who have Long-COVID who frequently experience milder cognitive symptoms like “brain fog” and also to develop therapeutic strategies.
More about COVID-CNS
The COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study ( COVID-CNS ) is a £2.3m UKRI study jointly led by researchers at the University of Liverpool and King’s College London. Acute neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of COVID-19 affect up to 20-30 % of hospitalised patients.
Researchers are researching the long-term clinical and cognitive effects of infection, the acute neurological and neuropsychiatric effects, and crucially identifying the underlying biological processes driving this through better understanding of brain injury, immune responses, and genetic risk factors.
Funding: This publication was supported by the national NIHR BioResource and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. It was also supported by the UK Research and Innovation ( UKRI ) grant COVID-CNS.
We thank the Patient and Public Involvement Panel, the Patient and Public Involvement Team, and the NIHR BioResource team for their involvement in each stage.
About this cognition, COVID, and aging research news
Author: Jennifer Morgan
Source: University of Liverpool
Contact: Jennifer Morgan – University of Liverpool
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
Greta Wood and colleagues ‘” Post-hospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at one year are global and are related to elevated brain injury markers and grey matter volume reduction.” Nature Medicine
Abstract
Global post-hospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits are linked to higher brain injury markers and reduced grey matter volume.
The spectrum, pathophysiology, and recovery trajectory of persistent post-COVID-19 cognitive deficits are unknown, limiting our ability to develop prevention and treatment strategies.
We report the one-year cognitive, serum biomarker, and neuroimaging findings from a prospective, national study of cognition in 351 COVID-19 patients who had required hospitalisation, compared to 2, 927 normative matched controls.
One year after COVID-19, there were global cognitive deficits that were linked to elevated brain injury markers and a decrease in the volume of the anterior cingulate cortex. The severity of the initial infective insult, post-acute psychiatric symptoms, and a history of encephalopathy were associated with greatest deficits.
There was a strong correlation between subjective and objective cognitive deficits. Longitudinal follow-up in 106 patients demonstrated a trend toward recovery.
Together, these findings support the hypothesis that brain injury in moderate to severe COVID-19 may be immune-mediated, and should guide the development of therapeutic strategies.
