Long-term impact of severe COVID-19 ages brain by 20 years: Study

The findings of a UK study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London revealed that severe COVID-19 can have long-term effects, including cognitive impairment that can make an individual lose 10 IQ points.

This can lead to drastic problems in memory and attention which could be equivalent to 20 years of aging. 

“Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, including dementia, and even routine ageing, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these,” said Professor David Menon, the senior author of the study. 

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Published in the journal ‘eClinicalMedicine’, the study revealed that an individual who previously contracted COVID-19 could exhibit severe cognitive effects even after six months of recovery. 

The rigorous study aimed to find an answer to several reports of the coronavirus leading to other symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, and PTSD, months after the initial infection.

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The researchers of the study examined data of 46 people who experienced severe COVID-19 and were admitted to intensive care units and mechanical ventilation in Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

They were then tested on their cognitive abilities such as attention, reasoning and memory, six months after their infection.

The test, conducted by using the Cognitron platform, also measured levels of PTSD, stress and depression in the patients. 

The findings revealed that those who received mechanical ventilation displayed the strongest negative cognitive effects such as poor verbal reasoning, slow processing speeds, etc.

 “We followed some patients up as late as ten months after their acute infection, so were able to see a very slow cognitive improvement. While this was not statistically significant, it is at least heading in the right direction, but it is very possible that some of these individuals will never fully recover,” said Professor Menon.