Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo found that cognitive impairments, such as memory loss and attention deficits, persist in both severe and mild COVID-19 patients long after initial infection, affecting their daily lives. The study of 302 volunteers found that even patients with mild symptoms exhibited significant cognitive impairment, highlighting the great need for cognitive rehabilitation strategies to address these long-term effects. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
According to the study, the most serious impact is SARS-CoV-2 Observed in acutely ill patients COVID-19However, people who had milder symptoms and were not hospitalized reported symptoms of memory loss and attention deficit that continued for more than 18 months after infection.
Memory loss and attention deficits are common symptoms among survivors of severe COVID-19, but a study by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil found that these and other cognitive impairments have also been observed in patients with milder disease more than 18 months after infection.
A paper on this research has been published in the journal BMC PsychologyThe findings highlight the need for more comprehensive rehabilitation to address the cognitive impact of long-term COVID-19, the authors write.
Data collected from 302 volunteers showed that cognitive impairment was present in 11.7% of patients with mild disease, 39.2% of patients with moderate disease, and 48.9% of patients with severe disease.
“The damage caused by the disease – memory loss, attention deficits and reduced processing speed – increases in proportion to the severity of the disease, but a not inconsiderable number of patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 (around 100 in our study) suffer from the same problems,” said Antonio de Padua Seraphim, first author of the study and professor at the Institute of Psychology (IP-USP).
The results of this FAPESP-funded study demonstrate the potential impact of neuroinflammation due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“Memory loss and attention deficits are known to be associated with post-intensive care syndrome due to intubation under deep anesthesia. However, some of the data analyzed in the study came from patients who presented with memory loss and attention deficits despite not needing intensive care or being sick enough to be hospitalized. The findings therefore open our eyes to the issue of neuroinflammation due to COVID-19,” Seraphim said.
Memory and attention are important cognitive functions that affect people’s daily lives. Reflecting this, study participants who scored poorly on tests of memory and attention reported having difficulty remembering words or carrying out everyday activities such as leaving a pot on the stove or missing to pick up their children from school.
“Hierarchically speaking, attention is a primary function in all mental activity, which explains why a lack of attention has such a large impact on people’s daily lives. High-quality attention is needed to think and act in different ways simultaneously. Poor attention, in turn, affects memory. In some cases, attentional activity is so distributed that it takes too long to remember each new stimulus. [or impending activity] “You lose memory and can’t remember what you were doing. This also affects processing activities, which are the ability to make quick, informed decisions,” he said.
Cognitive rehabilitation
Seraphim said evidence has long shown that SARS-CoV-2 can affect the lungs, kidneys, heart and muscles as well as the central nervous system, but the extent of the damage it can cause is not fully understood. “We don’t know if the cognitive impairment caused by COVID-19 is permanent, and we are currently looking at ways to intervene in this process,” he said.
Seraphim is collaborating with other researchers at USP to develop a program to mitigate the cognitive decline caused by COVID-19 by investigating whether techniques such as neurostimulation and neurofeedback can reduce or prevent memory loss and attention deficits.
“Both are non-invasive techniques that aim to improve brain function through neuromodulation, which stimulates connections between neurons in the brain. [synapses]”So far we only have case studies. For example, there was a doctor who was in intensive care for 34 days and we implemented a neurofeedback protocol, which is often used to study patients with attention deficit disorder, and he recovered well. But that was an isolated case,” he said.
“Based on what we know so far about cognitive stimulation and rehabilitation techniques, we believe that brain training may be able to improve neural connections and stimulate overall cognitive abilities. The serious phase of the pandemic has passed, but the aftereffects remain. So this is not a solved case. Many people were infected, and many people have these kinds of aftereffects. But we don’t have effective programs to intervene not only on the emotional side, but also on the cognitive impairment caused by COVID-19.”
Reference: “Cognitive performance in patients after COVID-19 infection in mild, moderate and severe clinical situations” by Antonio de Padua Serafim, Fabiana Safi, Amanda Rafaela A. Soares, Alessandra Mara Morita, Mariana Medeiros Acedo, Sandro de Toledo, Cristiana CA Rocca and Ricardo SS Duranes, 26 April 2024, BMC Psychology.
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-01740-7
This study was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation.
