Research: Covid-19 survivors likely to get brain disorders
A health worker inoculates a woman with a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, India, on October 21, 2021.
People infected with Covid-19 are likely to develop brain-related disorders two years after contracting the coronavirus, a new study has revealed. Researchers say that this has not been observed in other respiratory infections.
The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Oxford and was published in the scientific journal, The Lancet Psychiatry, after examining data of more than a million people who had been infected globally. It was done between January 2020 and April 2022.
The scientists only linked Covid-19 to the brain disorders if it occurred within two months after diagnosis.
“If no anxiety disorder has been diagnosed within two months of a Covid-19 diagnosis then, from that time onwards, a patient can be reassured that their risk is no longer any greater than after another respiratory infection,” they observed.
“If a patient had developed an Ischaemic stroke (occurs when there is a blockage of blood supply to the brain) within two months of a Covid-19 diagnosis, it is plausible that the diagnosis contributed (whether directly or indirectly) to its occurrence, but beyond two months, other causes should be actively considered.”
Their study revealed that mood and anxiety disorders from people who had Covid-19 were short-lived compared to psychotic disorders (like hallucination), cognitive deficit (brain fog), dementia, and epilepsy or seizures which were persistent.
“The risk of cognitive deficit, dementia, psychotic disorder, and epilepsy remain elevated two years after Sars-Cov-2 (coronavirus) infection, while the risks of other diagnoses (notably, mood and anxiety disorders) subside after one to two months and show no overall excess over the whole two-year follow-up,” the researchers said. They also compared the aftermath of Covid-19 between children and adults and discovered a stark difference. Children were found to have a non-threatening overall profile of psychiatric risk compared to adults and senior citizens, but they still had a higher risk of brain-disorder diagnosis.
“Unlike adults, children were not at an increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders after Sars-Cov-2 infection (even in the first six months) and cognitive deficit in children was for a short period rather than ongoing risks as seen in older groups. The difference in profiles and trajectories of risks in children might indicate that the pathogenesis (development of a disease) of Covid-19 is different in some respects from that of adults,” the scientists further noted.
They also studied the different outcomes of the brain disorders at different stages of the pandemic, especially when there was a new variant. They found out that the risk of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses of Covid-19 was greater with the emergence of the Delta variant (for instance; cognitive deficit, epilepsy, and Ischaemic strokes) than just before its emergence. The situation was similar when the Omicron variant was dominant.
“The fact that neurological and psychiatric outcomes were similar during the delta and omicron waves indicates that the burden on the healthcare system might continue even with variants that are less severe in other respects,” they said.
“Health services will likely continue to face a similar rate of these post-Covid-19 diagnoses even with Sars-Cov-2 variants that lead to otherwise less severe disease.”
They also analysed death as a possible outcome from the brain-related disorders that are linked to Covid-19.
“In older adults, death was common in those who received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis regardless of whether they had Covid-19 or another respiratory infection, exceeding 50 percent for several of the neurological disorders (like epilepsy) and for psychotic disorders (like hallucinations).”
The researchers predict that the more the number of Covid-19 cases, the more people will be diagnosed with brain related disorders.
“These findings suggest that service provision needs to be reinforced and sustained, because new cases are likely to occur for a considerable time after the pandemic has subsided,” researchers said.
