(The newspaper online): A new study on the Corona virus reveals worrying long-term effects on memory and cognitive abilities.
The study was conducted by researchers at Imperial College London and published in the famous medical journal New England Journal of Medicine last week.
“In this large community-based study, we found that COVID-19 was associated with long-term, objectively measurable cognitive deficits,” the study stated.
The study reveals minimal cognitive decline that could be identified one year after infection, even among those who had only a short period of illness, Imperial College London wrote in its research. press release.
– I was completely surprised
According to the study, people with long and short term
Patients with prolonged effects lasting twelve weeks or more, also called post-COVID late effects or “long COVID,” experienced cognitive impairment. A drop equivalent to six points in IQAccording to the study.
Critically ill Covid patients admitted to the ICU had cognitive impairment A decrease of nine points in IQ.
Based on previous research, the researchers expected certain cognitive decline in severely infected Covid patients.
But we were quite surprised to see any difference at all between people with short-term symptoms and the group that did not get Covid, says Professor Adam Hampshire in a statement to Washington Post.
Hampshire is the study's lead author and professor of neuroscience at Imperial College London.
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Proven in many studies
The link between severe illness and cognitive problems has also been proven in other studies, says Assistant Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad.
This study found the most common self-reported cognitive complaints in people who were hospitalized, especially in the intensive care unit, or who had COVID-19 symptoms for longer than 12 weeks. In particular, memory and the ability to argue and plan appear to be affected, Nakstad tells Netavicin.
– Such an association between the severe course of the disease and late consequences in the form of cognitive complaints has also been seen in other studies, including in Norway, says Nakstad.
Canteen: – Noticeable to some
Dag William Hugito Stang is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mensa Norge. A drop of nine or six points in IQ would be noticeable for the average Norwegian, he says.
“It's hard to see exactly what a points-related failure means in practice, but we can count on it being important for some, but it won't make any practical difference for many,” Stang tells Netavicin.
He points out that a starting point is necessary.
Most people's IQ ranges between 85 and 115 points. They manage most things very well, everything from relationships and work to their children. If you're severely affected, there will be significant cognitive impairment, says Stang.
– If your average score is 100 IQ points and you return nine points, you drop to 91 points. It is very noticeable. You then go from being able to solve fairly straightforward problems in everyday life to struggling to solve moderately difficult tasks, he says.
– Search for words
-If you have 100 IQ points and you lose six points, that's also interesting. After that, you'll take longer to complete tasks, notice that things no longer move so quickly in your head and search for words you weren't searching for before, Stang says.
– But let's say you have 130 IQ points and you lose three points. So it's not certain that you'll notice any difference. “It may seem as if you haven't had your cup of coffee yet,” he says.
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The lower the IQ scale, the greater the cognitive impairment, says Stang.
-If your IQ is 90, you are slightly below average. With 90 points, you are doing quite well in Norway. If you then get seriously ill with Covid, according to this study you will lose 81 points. Then you lose ten percent of your cognitive ability. He says: If I lost ten percent of my cognitive abilities, I would have lost between 14 and 15 points in IQ.
Stang can confirm that Mensa has not noticed any decline in the number of members, and points out that, on the contrary, there has been a significant increase in flow since the pandemic.
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Nextad: – Well conducted study
The researchers behind the study profiled the participants Internet-based tasks To measure cognitive abilities. More than 140,000 people completed at least one of the tasks, while 113,000 people completed all eight tasks.
Participants were recruited from a larger group of three million adults in a comprehensive English-language study of Covid from 1 May 2020 to 21 March 2022.
Nakstad says the study was well conducted.
He says: – Its greatest strength is that many people ask, and its greatest weakness is that it relies on self-reports and not on clinical examinations or tests.
The researchers themselves point out that the study has several limitations. Among other things, the researchers did not have access to information about the participants' cognitive abilities before they became infected with Covid-19.
Their cognitive test results were therefore compared to those of participants who had not been infected with the coronavirus, rather than measuring each individual's actual cognitive change.
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Although the study does not show a statistically reliable causal relationship between virus infection and individual diseases, it joins a series of studies that have found an accumulation of cognitive impairment in people who have had particularly long-term or severe Covid-19 infection, says Nakstad.
According to the study, cognitive decline was greater among those who were infected early in the epidemic.
– The study indicates that the first variants of the virus (Wuhan and Delta variants) more often produced late sequelae than the virus variants that emerged in 2021. However, it is difficult to assess the importance of this, as a much larger number of people were infected with the later virus. Nakstad says that Variants, especially the different Omicron variants that have been circulating in 2022 and 2023.
The study also showed a small cognitive advantage among patients who had already received two or more doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
– Vaccination and virus variant
There is no scientific consensus on a specific definition of late effects of Covid, also known as long Covid. Therefore, the researchers conducting the study took the duration of symptoms as a starting point.
The outcomes of those who did not become ill with Covid were compared with those who recovered within four weeks, those who recovered after four to twelve weeks and those who were still experiencing Covid symptoms after twelve weeks.
The potential long-term effects of Covid-19 on cognitive function have been a concern for the general public, healthcare professionals and decision-makers, but until now have been difficult to measure objectively in a large proportion of the population, says Professor Hampshire in a press release.
He says: – Using Internet-based platforms to measure many aspects of cognition and memory on a large scale, we were able to detect a small but measurable decline in performance on cognitive tasks.
– We also found that people may have been affected in different ways, depending on factors such as the duration of illness, the virus variant, and hospitalization, says the professor.
Researchers stress that cognitive decline in patients with persistent symptoms is not necessarily permanent.
Hampshire says there are cases of improvement for those who have left behind post-Covid late effects.
“This gives us a little hope that those currently experiencing late effects after COVID-19 can experience cognitive progress when symptoms finally go away,” Hampshire tells The Washington Post.
Norwegian study: Many people suffer from poor memory after Covid-19
Norwegian study
Last week, a Norwegian study on Covid-19 was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Accordingly Norwegian study Many people suffer from poor memory after being infected with the Coronavirus. Some people experience memory loss three years after the injury.
A total of 112,000 Norwegians participated in the study. Norwegian researchers compared memory before and after infection with the Coronavirus.
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