Study: Covid19 Survivors Likely To Be Affected By Cognitive Complications

A large proportion of Covid-19 survivors may be affected by neuropsychiatric and cognitive complications, say, researchers, including one of Indian-origin. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, found that in the short term, a wide range of neuropsychiatric problems was reported.

A study carried out showed 95 percent of clinically stable Covid-19 patients had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other studies found between 17-42 percent of patients experienced affective disorders, such as depression. "Understanding the neuropsychiatric and cognitive consequences of Covid-19 is important as millions of people have been affected by the virus, and many cases go undetected," said researcher Sanjay Kumar from Oxford Brookes University.

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"These conditions affect people's capacity to work effectively, drive, manage finances, make informed decisions and participate in daily family activities," Kumar added. The study also revealed that the main short-term cognitive problems were found to be impaired attention (reported by 45 percent of patients) and impaired memory (between 13-28 percent of patients).

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In the long term, neuropsychiatric problems and cognitive complications were mostly affective disorders and fatigue, as well as impaired attention (reported by 44 percent of patients) and memory (reported between 28-50 percent of patients). The researchers involved more than 200 patients with mild to severe Covid-19 infection. "Detailed cognitive evaluation and robust monitoring of patients should be considered in order to detect new neurological cases," Kumar noted. (IANS/SP)