Lack of concentration, the feeling of being “out west”, these are some of the symptoms that some people develop after Covid-19. A set of cognitive disorders referred to as cognitive fog that scientists are only just beginning to study.
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After the Covid-19, cured patients find it difficult to resume a normal life, in particular because of a constant impression of being elsewhere, of lacking concentration or of not being as quick-witted as before. Anglophones call this a brain fog ” Where fog cerebral. It is not a scientific or medical term, but the best description that patients have found to describe their condition.
Covid-19 can affect the brain by causing encephalitis, from stroke, or by depriving it of oxygen. Other conditions are more subtle and appear several months after the initial infection, such as the cognitive disorders that constitute brain fog. The origin of these symptoms still eludes doctors, but research is underway. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco conducted a small study with about twenty volunteers to identify risk factors predisposing to post-Covid brain fog, as well as biological markers to facilitate the diagnostic. This research is part of a larger project, called LIINC (Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus), which focuses on the long-term impact of Covid-19.
Predicting post-Covid cognitive impairment
The volunteers had a moderate form of Covid-19 which did not require hospitalization. They were separated into two groups: a group that brings together people with post-Covid cognitive disorders, 22 people, and a healthy control group, 10 people. A neurologist conducted cognitive interviews with each of them. The diagnosis of sequel cognitive post-Covid (or NOT C in English) is posed when one or more new cognitive symptoms appear after Covid-19. For 43% of volunteers, cognitive alterations appear between one and six months after Covid-19. Around two months for 29% of them. Others are unable to date the onset of cognitive impairment.
The scientists also suggested that the volunteers make a puncture lumbar to analyze their liquid cerebrospinal, 13 people with PASC accepted. Among the samples collected, ten present a anomaly : rates of proteins above standard norms, or an excess ofimmunoglobulin. This could be due to a inflammation persistent after viral clearance and also be linked to the cognitive disorders observed in patients.
Those who have developed brain fog have, in some cases, poor mental health with episodes of depression, anxiety, or also suffer from attention deficit disorder or learning problems. In the group that did not develop post-Covid-19 PASC, these disorders are much less common. Post-Covid brain fog would take advantage of the condition of some patients to develop, but at present it is impossible to predict whether or not it will develop after Covid-19.
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