COVID-19 May Have Long-Term Effects on the Brain

COVID-19 has proven capable of affecting nearly every part of the body—including the brain. A study of 1.28 million people who had the disease, published Aug. 17 in the Lancet Psychiatry, sheds light on the often complex, and sometimes long-term, impacts of COVID-19 on the minds of kids and adults. Analyzing data from patients in the U.S. and several other countries, researchers found that within the first two months of getting COVID-19, people were more likely to experience anxiety and depression than people who got a different type of respiratory infection. And for up to two years after, people remained at greater risk for conditions such as brain fog, psychosis, seizures, and dementia. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Long COVID—marked by at least one symptom that lingers for months after COVID-19—is a growing problem worldwide. Earlier research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that roughly one in five people in the U.S. who gets COVID-19 develops it. This week’s study helps researchers further understand the manifestations of Long COVID. The results “highlight the need for more research to understand why this happens after COVID-19, and what can be done to prevent these disorders from occurring, or treat them when they do,” said Maxime Taquet, the study’s lead author and a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, in a statement. Researchers found that the risks of poor...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news