For years, COVID-19 patients have reported experiencing something called “brain fog.” It’s not a medical or scientific term, but rather a phrase used to describe the sluggish, fuzzy symptoms sometimes experienced by people infected by the disease.
Now, a report in the Conversation contends COVID-19′s effects on the brain can be far more damaging, even leading to a significant drop in IQ scores.
“In addition to brain fog, COVID-19 can lead to an array of problems, including headaches, seizure disorders, strokes, sleep problems, and tingling and paralysis of the nerves, as well as several mental health disorders,” Ziyad Al-Aly, Washington University clinical epidemiologist and VA St. Louis Health Care System chief of research and development, wrote for the Conversation.
The dangers, unfortunately, do not end there. Large epidemiological analyses have showed those infected by COVID-19 are at an increased risk of cognitive deficits, including memory problems sometimes associated with brain fog. Imaging studies have shown that COVID-19 patients have experienced both altered brain structures and shrinkage in brain volumes after infection.
Brain inflammation caused by mild to moderate COVID infection has been found to affect patients in a way “commensurate with seven years of brain aging,” according to Al-Aly, who wrote he has been “devoted to studying long COVID since early patient reports about this condition — even before the term ‘long COVID’ was coined.” Severe infection, such as when a patient requires hospitalization or intensive care, can cause brain damage equivalent to 20 years of aging.
In people older than 60, COVID infection can also increase the risk of developing new-onset dementia. Most recently, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed the virus can even cause drops in IQ, as well as significant deficits in memory and executive task performance.
“In the same study, those who had mild and resolved COVID-19 showed cognitive decline equivalent to a three-point loss of IQ,” Al-Aly wrote. “In comparison, those with unresolved persistent symptoms, such as people with persistent shortness of breath or fatigue, had a six-point loss in IQ. Those who had been admitted to the intensive care unit for COVID-19 had a nine-point loss in IQ. Reinfection with the virus contributed an additional two-point loss in IQ, as compared with no reinfection.”
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