A new study reports that brain function can be impaired for 18 months after a person has recovered from COVID-19, especially if the individual was hospitalized. However, COVID-induced cognitive impairment is no more severe than impairment due to other diseases causing hospitalization.
The prospective cohort study, published in JAMA Network Open, suggests that the brain health of COVID-19 patients who were ill enough to go to the hospital suffered long-lasting neurological damage that included new psychiatric diagnoses, such as anxiety and depression, fatigue, and sleep issues. Previous studies showed these symptoms occurred among 12 percent to 50 percent of individuals one year after infection. Consistent with these findings, this study found that about 38 percent of study participants still had cognitive symptoms at the 18-month follow-up.
