#brain_fog

More than a quarter of people with Covid infection develop Long Covid, new research reveals

A new study carried out by researchers at the University of York suggests 28% of people who catch #COVID-19 will go on to suffer from Long Covid.

The study also reveals that one in four people with Long Covid will experience brain fog and one in three to four will develop anxiety or depression.

However, the findings of the study, published in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, suggest that full Covid vaccination makes sufferers four times less likely to have #brain_fog – a term used to describe symptoms including poor concentration, feeling confused and cognitive impairment.

Long-term sickness

With Long COVID a key factor in the record 2.8 million people off work in the UK due to long-term sickness, the researchers are calling for yearly COVID-19 vaccinations to be rolled out and should include all working-age people.

The study reviewed 17 studies from around the world involving more than 40,000 Long COVID patients. It was carried out in collaboration with the STIMULATE-ICP project, which is a £6.8 million NIHR-funded national research project led by University College London.

Debilitating

Lead author, Professor Christina van der Feltz—Cornelis, Chair of Psychiatry and Epidemiology at the Department of Health Sciences and at the University of York and Hull Medical School (HYMS), said: “I was struck by the figures that emerged from our study because they make it clear just how many people around the world are being affected by this debilitating condition.”

“The discovery of a significant reduction in the risk of brain fog after Covid vaccination is particularly important in this context and provides support for continuation and extension of vaccination programmes, particularly to working-age people.

“There is a societal tendency in the UK to think Covid is over, but Long Covid is having a profound and lasting effect on individuals and society as a whole, with many people leaving the workplace due to the condition. This is placing a heavy burden on the economy.”

Chronic

Long Covid is a chronic condition following a Covid infection which affects an estimated 1.9 million people in the UK. Symptoms can include breathlessness, heart palpitations, joint pain and concentration problems.

The findings of the research also indicate that the mental health symptoms and brain fog experienced by people with Long Covid can actually get worse for many people over time. 24 months after acute infections, people were three to four times more likely to develop brain fog compared to during the peak of their Covid infection. The risk of developing depression or anxiety rose approximately 1.5 times in the same timeframe.

Uncertainty

Professor van der Feltz - Cornelis added: “This finding indicating that the condition often gets worse over time is concerning. It could be due to a decline in people’s mental health as living with Long Covid and the uncertainty that comes with the condition takes its toll. However, some early evidence suggests that living with Long Covid affects nerve cells in the brain so that might play a role as well.

“With so many people suffering from the severe effects of this condition, our study clearly points to the need for greater support, in addition to sustained vaccination programmes. We are very lucky to be one of the only countries to have dedicated Long Covid centres, but we need more joined-up treatment of the mental and physical symptoms of the condition and greater resources for effective treatments, rehabilitation and occupational therapy so that people are able to recover and avoid losing their careers and livelihoods. ”

▻https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2024/research/long-covid-fog
#long_covid #covid_long #chronicité #vaccination #vaccins #dépression #anxiété #concentration

#COVID-19 patients face higher risk of brain fog and depression, even 1 year after infection
▻https://www.science.org/content/article/covid-19-patients-face-higher-risk-brain-fog-and-depression-even-1-year-aft

Now, a giant new study shows people who contracted COVID-19 faced substantially higher risks of neuropsychiatric ailments 1 year later, including #brain_fog, depression, and substance use disorders. The report, based on millions of people who used the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system early in the pandemic, is published today in The BMJ.

[...] In the current analysis, the researchers found that 1 year later, survivors of COVID-19 were 46% more likely than pandemic-era controls to have been diagnosed with any of 14 neuropsychiatric disorders. These included depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, sleep disturbance, opioid use disorder, and neurocognitive decline or “brain fog.” The risk of brain fog was 80% higher than in controls, which translates to 10.75 more cases for every 1000 infected people. People hospitalized with coronavirus infections had the highest risk of developing any of the disorders—343% more than controls. Outpatients faced a 40% higher risk of developing an ailment.

Infected veterans were also 86% more likely to have received a prescription for an opioid, a benzodiazepine such as Valium, an antidepressant, or another neuropsychiatric drug.

#covid_long

Study reveals seven in ten patients hospitalised with #COVID-19 not fully recovered five months post-discharge
▻https://le.ac.uk/news/2021/march/covid-19-patients-not-fully-recovered

Étude (en cours) #PHOSP-COVID, britannique sur 1077 patients,

[...] “While the profile of patients being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is disproportionately male and from an ethnic minority background, our study finds that those who have the most severe prolonged symptoms tend to be white women aged approximately 40 to 60 who have at least two long term health conditions, such as asthma or diabetes.”

The researchers were able to the classify types of recovery into four different groups or ‘clusters’ based on the participants’ mental and physical health impairments.

One cluster group in particular showed impaired cognitive function, or what has colloquially been called ‘#brain_fog’. Patients in this group tended to be older and male. Cognitive impairment was striking even when taking education levels into account, suggesting a different underlying mechanism compared to other symptoms.

[...] much of the wide variety of persistent problems was not explained by the severity of the acute illness - the latter largely driven by acute lung injury - indicating other, possibly more systemic, underlying mechanisms.”

The research has also uncovered a potential biological factor behind some post-COVID symptoms.

Professor Louise Wain, GSK/British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research at the University of Leicester and co-investigator for the PHOSP-COVID study, said: “When we looked at the symptom severity of patients five months after they were discharged from hospital, we found that in all but the mildest cases of persistent post-COVID symptoms, levels of a chemical called C-reactive protein [CRP], which is associated with inflammation, were elevated.

“From previous studies, it is known that systemic inflammation is associated with poor recovery from illnesses across the disease spectrum. We also know that autoimmunity, where the body has an immune response to its own healthy cells and organs, is more common in middle-aged women. This may explain why post-COVID syndrome seems to be more prevalent in this group, but further investigation is needed to fully understand the processes. The evidence for different recovery ‘clusters’, and ongoing inflammation, really is important in guiding how we conduct further research into the underlying biological mechanisms that drive ‘Long-COVID’.”

One of the purposes of the PHOSP-COVID study is to measure the impact of medicines given during hospitalisation to see if they affect patients’ recovery. Early indicators from the study show that while giving corticosteroids is a factor in reducing mortality in hospital, it does not appear to have an impact on longer term recovery.

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#long_covid #covid_long #auto-immunité