Long Term Neurological & Cognitive Issues In Non-Hospitalized Covid 'Long Haulers': Study, NYT
'Early Results suggest Covid-19 may be even more insidious than first realized.' Daily Kos, March 23, 2021.
The New York Times has an article by Pam Belluck that paints an alarming picture. Covid-19 may have non-trivial neurological consequences. 'They Had Mild Covid. Then Their Serious Symptoms Kicked In.' A new study illuminates the complex array of neurological issues experienced by people months after their coronavirus infections. By the end of the year, Ms. Khan was referred to a special clinic for Covid-related neurological symptoms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which has been evaluating and counseling hundreds of people from across the country who are experiencing similar issues.
Now, the clinic, which sees about 60 new patients a month, in-person and via telemedicine, has published the first study focused on long-term neurological symptoms in people who were never physically sick enough from Covid-19 to need hospitalization, including Ms. Khan. The study of 100 patients from 21 states, published on Tuesday in The Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, found that 85 % of them experienced 4 or more neurological issues like brain fog, headaches, tingling, muscle pain and dizziness.
For those who are interested in the report: Persistent neurologic symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in non‐hospitalized Covid‐19 “long haulers.”
- Here’s the abstract: Abstract, Objective, Most SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected individuals never require hospitalization. However, some develop prolonged symptoms. We sought to characterize the spectrum of neurologic manifestations in non‐hospitalized Covid‐19 “long haulers”. - Methods: This is a prospective study of the first 100 consecutive patients (50 SARS‐CoV‐2 laboratory‐positive and 50 laboratory‐negative individuals) presenting to our Neuro‐Covid‐19 clinic between May and November 2020. Due to early pandemic testing limitations, patients were included if they met Infectious Diseases Society of America symptoms of Covid‐19, were never hospitalized for pneumonia or hypoxemia and had neurologic symptoms lasting over 6 weeks. We recorded the frequency of neurologic symptoms and analyzed patient‐reported quality of life measures and standardized cognitive assessments.
- Results: The most frequent comorbidities were depression/anxiety (42%) and autoimmune disease (16%). The main neurologic manifestations were: “brain fog” (81%), headache (68%), numbness/tingling (60%), dysgeusia (59%), anosmia (55%), myalgias (55%),...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/23/2022419/-Early-Results-suggest-Covid-19-may-be-even-more-insidious-than-first-realized
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- NYT, 'They Had Mild Covid. Then Their Serious Symptoms Kicked In,' 3/23/21, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/health/long-covid-symptoms.html
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- 'Some Long-Haul Covid Patients Feeling Better After Vaccination, 3/17/21,
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-03-17/some-long-haul-covid-patients-are-feeling-better-after-vaccination