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June 21, 2021 Covid-19 infection can cause a series of cognitive and behavioral problems that can persist even months after hospital discharge.
This is the alarming picture that emerges from a series of studies presented during the seventh Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN).
The first work, conducted by scientists from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, monitored the health of patients admitted to the facility and performed a follow-up of eight weeks after their discharge. The team, led by Massimo Filippi, found that one in five patients was associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 16 percent of the subjects had symptoms of depression. More than half of the participants were also associated with cognitive impairments that seemed more pronounced in young people, and 16 percent of the cohort had problems with executive functions, such as working memory management, flexible thinking, and information processing. Six percent could not see contrast or judge depth, and another six percent had memory difficulties.One in four patients had a combination of all of these symptoms.
"It is alarming to think that these difficulties have mainly affected young people of working age - observes Filippi - further investigations will be necessary, but our work shows that Covid-19 is associated with cognitive and psychopathological problems". Another research, presented by Mattia Pozzato of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, found that 77.4 percent of the cohort considered, in which there were 53 Covid-19 patients, had developed at least one neurological symptom, and 46 , 3 percent presented more than three five to ten months after their discharge. Among the most common manifestations, the authors report insomnia, daytime sleepiness and difficulty walking. The team led by Tamara S. Mischenko of the University of Karazin, Ukraine,instead followed 42 patients aged between 32 and 54 years, 95 per cent of whom had developed neurocognitive difficulties, mainly fatigue, anxiety and depression.
Finally, the research team of Tommaso Bocci, of the University of Milan, examined the damage to the brain stem in patients who died as a result of Covid-19, detecting a large number of small masses in the brain associated with neurodegenerative diseases. According to Bocci, these investigations provide the first neuropathological, neurophysiological and clinical evidence of brain stem involvement in novel coronavirus disease.