An online UK study finds that about 70% of 181 adult COVID survivors had memory and concentration problems several months after infection, 75% reported persistent symptoms so severe that they couldn't work, and 50% said that medical professionals didn't take their symptoms seriously.In the ongoing COVID and Cognition study, published as two papers today in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, a team led by University of Cambridge researchers report on the baseline characteristics and cognitive test performance of 181 long COVID patients and 185 never-infected peers.Participants were recruited from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, although 70% were White UK patients.
Most COVID-19 survivors were infected 6 or more months before, and only a few had been ill enough to be hospitalized. Data collection on patients infected from March 2020 to February 2021 (when the Delta and Omicron variants were uncommon in the study countries) took place from October 2020 to March 2021.Long COVID can be debilitating, affecting multiple organ systems, including the brain, and causing highly individual symptoms in the months after infection.
Neurologic symptoms may include "brain fog," disorientation, headache, and forgetfulness.Severe infection portends severe long COVIDIn the first paper, the team found that the severity of acute illness was a significant predictor of the presence and severity of long COVID symptoms.Six initial symptoms were associated with progression to long COVID, including limb weakness, brain fog, chest pain or tightness, dizziness, cough, and breathing problems.