COVID-19 patients may suffer brain ageing, fall in cognitive abilities: Study

People recovering from COVID-19 may suffer significant cognitive deficits, with worst cases linked to mental decline equivalent to brain ing by 10 years, a study said. Researchers from Imperial College of London and King’s College London analysed cognitive test data from 84,285 people with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 infection who went through BBC2 Horizon's Great British Intelligence Test.

According to study, seriously ill COVID-19 patients were associated with a fall in cognitive abilities equivalent to sudden ing by ten years or losing eight IQ points. study has t been peer-reviewed yet and results in pre-print article "align with view that re are chronic cognitive consequences of having COVID-19”.

“Individuals who recovered from suspected or confirmed COVID-19 perform worse on cognitive tests in multiple domains than would be expected given ir detailed and demographic profiles,” study said.

"se results should act as a clarion call for more detailed research investigating basis of cognitive deficits in people who have survived SARS-Cov-2 infection," it added.

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Medium-term impact

Earlier this month, ar study on medium-term impact of COVID-19 found that a significant proportion of patients discharged from hospital continue to experience breathlessness, fatigue, anxiety, and depression for 2-3 months after infection. University of Oxford led research and observed medium-term impact of COVID-19 on 58 patients hospitalised due to highly-infectious disease.

“ medium-term effects of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on multiple organ health, exercise capacity, cognition, quality of life and mental health are poorly understood,” study said.

findings of study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed but published on MedRxiv website before review, suggest that 64% of patients experienced persistent breathlessness and 55% complained of significant fatigue. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients indicated tissue signal abrmalities in lungs (60%), heart (26%), liver (10%) and kidneys (29%) of patients.

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