A new major study of Covid-19 survivors has found that 1 in 3 suffer from a neurological condition or impairment six months after they have recovered.
The study looked at 236,000 Covid-19 patients, most of whom were from the United States, and tracked them over a six month period.
The study found that 17% suffered from anxiety and 14% suffered from mood disorders. It is as of yet unclear whether the fact they were ill with a potentially deadly disease has left them with these neurological conditions or whether the virus itself inflicted brain damage on the patients.
It also found that patients who had suffered from Covid-19 were far more likely to suffer a stroke or be diagnosed with dementia in the months after diagnosis, thus indicating that there was, in fact, a viral cause to the neurological conditions.
A smaller study carried out in Rome found similar findings though the sample size was much smaller.
The researchers stated:
"Neurological diagnoses such as stroke and dementia were rarer but not uncommon in those who had been seriously ill. For example, of those who had been admitted to intensive care, 7 per cent had a stroke and almost 2 per cent were diagnosed with dementia."
Maxime Taquet, who helped run the data evaluation, said:
"Our results indicate that brain diseases and psychiatric disorders are more common after Covid-19 than after flu or other respiratory infections, even when patients are matched for other risk factors. We now need to see what happens beyond six months."
Other, smaller studies have pointed to the same conclusion. Research in February followed 381 patients treated for Covid-19 at a hospital in Rome, Italy and found that 30% of them experienced PTSD after recovery.
While the neurological effects are more severe in hospitalized patients, they are still common in those who were ill but not treated in hospital.
Many other Covid-19 survivors appear to suffer from 'long-Covid', in which they still suffer from Covid-19 symptoms, or continue to suffer poor health for many months, following their initial infection.
[h/t: CNN]
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