Emerging Knowledge of the Neurobiology of COVID-19

Many patients with COVID-19 will experience acute or longer-term neuropsychiatric complications. The neurobiological mechanisms behind these are beginning to emerge, however the neurotropic hypothesis is not strongly supported by clinical data. The inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 is likely to be responsible for delirium and other common acute neuropsychiatric manifestations. Vascular abnormalities such as endotheliopathies contribute to stroke and cerebral microbleeds, with their attendant neuropsychiatric sequelae. Longer-term neuropsychiatric syndromes fall into two broad categories: neuropsychiatric deficits occurring after severe (hospitalised) COVID-19, and ‘long COVID’, which occurs in many patients with a milder acute COVID-19 illness.

Source: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America - November 10, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Matthew Butler, Benjamin Cross, Danish Hafeez, Mao Fong Lim, Hamilton Morrin, Emma Rachel Rengasamy, Tom Pollak, Timothy R. Nicholson Source Type: research