Cognitive Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of Aging –
According to a team of scientists, cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained from the 20 years of aging between 50 and 70 and is the equivalent of losing 10 IQ points.
Cognitive impairment as a result of severe
“Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these.” — David Menon
There is mounting evidence that COVID-19 can cause long-term cognitive and mental health issues, with recovered patients reporting symptoms including fatigue, “brain fog,” difficulty recalling words, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (even mild cases can lead to persistent cognitive symptoms, between a third and three-quarters of hospitalized patients report still suffering cognitive symptoms three to six months later.
To investigate this link in greater detail, researchers analyzed data from 46 people who received in-hospital care for COVID-19 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. During their hospital stay, 16 patients were placed on mechanical ventilation. All of the patients were admitted between March and July of 2020 and were recruited to the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource.
The individuals underwent detailed computerized cognitive tests an average of six months after their acute illness using the Cognitron platform, which measures different aspects of mental faculties such as memory, attention, and reasoning. Scales measuring anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder were also assessed. Their data were compared against matched controls.
This is the first time that such rigorous assessment and comparison has been carried out in relation to the aftereffects of severe COVID-19.
COVID-19 survivors were less accurate and with slower response times than the matched control population – and these deficits were still detectable when the patients were following up six months later. The effects were strongest for those who required mechanical ventilation. By comparing the patients to 66,008 members of the general public, the researchers estimate that the magnitude of cognitive loss is similar on average to that sustained with 20 years aging, between 50 and 70 years of age, and that this is equivalent to losing 10 IQ points.
Survivors scored particularly poorly on tasks such as verbal analogical reasoning, a finding that supports the commonly-reported problem of difficulty finding words. They also showed slower processing speeds, which aligns with previous observations post COVID-19 of decreased brain glucose consumption within the frontoparietal network of the brain, responsible for attention, complex problem-solving and working memory, among other functions.
Professor David Menon from the Division of Anaesthesia at the University of Cambridge, the study’s senior author, said: “Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, including dementia, and even routine aging, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these.”
While it is now well established that people who have recovered from severe COVID-19 illness can have a broad…
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