Hospitalization with Covid could age your brain by two decades, a government-funded study warned today.
Cambridge University experts say the effect is equivalent to losing about 10 IQ points.
Dozens of studies have found that Covid damages brain function, but scientists claim this is the first of its kind to rigorously assess the effects.
A new study has found that survivors of severe Covid infection performed worse than members of the public on cognitive tests six months after recovery. Left chart shows how Covid survivors fared on ‘accuracy’ on a cognitive test, with a negative result being worse than the general public. The right chart shows the results of Covid survivors in terms of time taken, with a positive result indicating it took them longer than the average person to solve the test
Scientists found this Covid-related decline in cognitive function most closely matched that seen in healthy people in their 50s and 70s. These charts show cognitive decline scores for a variety of conditions, with Covid patients on the far left having age-related decline in the middle and dementia on the far right. The red bars show how imprecisely the test scores differed from the average, and the blue bars show the time it took the participants to answer the questions
What is Long Covid and what does the NHS recommend for it?
An estimated 1.33 million people in the UK had long Covid as of January 2, according to the Office of National Statistics.
Long Covid is an informal term used to describe persistent symptoms after Covid infection lasting more than 12 weeks.
A dizzying array of symptoms have been attributed to the long Covid, including:
- extreme tiredness (tiredness)
- shortness of breath
- chest pain or tightness
- Impaired memory and concentration (“brain fog”)
- sleep disorders (insomnia)
- palpitations
- dizziness
- needles and pins
- joint pain
- depression and anxiety
- Tinnitus, earache
- Nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite
- Fever, cough, headache, sore throat, changes in smell or taste
- skin rashes
The researchers tested the cognitive abilities of 46 patients, with an average age of 51, who were hospitalized with the virus in 2020. A third had been put on ventilators.
They underwent a battery of memory, attention and logic tests six months after their illness.
These test results were then compared to the results of 66,000 members of the general public.
Approximately 460 were selected for direct comparison based on patient demographics.
The results showed that the Covid survivors were, on average, less accurate and had slower response times than the public.
Covid survivors did particularly poorly on tasks in which they had to find the right words for a problem, called “verbal analogies” in the test.
This, the authors say, is a commonly reported problem among those suffering from “brain fog” after recovering from Covid.
The results also showed that patients who required mechanical ventilation performed the worst on the tests, suggesting that disease severity is a driving factor in the cognitive decline associated with long Covid.
The study, which also involved researchers from Imperial College London, said the cognitive impairment in Covid survivors is similar to that which usually occurs in people aged 50 to 70.
While the patients showed “gradual” cognitive improvement 10 months after their illness, the authors said some may never fully recover their prior intelligence.
They also warned that millions suffering from a milder version of Covid could also be affected, albeit to a lesser extent.
Neuroscientist Professor David Menon, author of the study, said while some of the patients have shown improvement over time, it has been slow and some may never regain their previous cognitive abilities.
“We followed some patients up to ten months after their acute infection, so we saw a very slow improvement,” he said.
“While this wasn’t statistically significant, it’s at least pointing in the right direction, but it’s very likely that some of these individuals will never fully recover.”
Fellow researcher Professor Adam Hampshire said large numbers of Brits could be affected by this Covid-induced premature brain ageing.
He added: “Around 40,000 people have been treated in intensive care with Covid in England alone and many more will have been very ill but not admitted to hospital.
“That means there are a lot of people out there who still have problems with perception many months later.
“We urgently need to look at what can be done to help these people.”
A report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of Jan. 2, 1.33 million adults were suffering from Long-Covid symptoms. The graph above shows the change in long-Covid prevalence during the pandemic but gives the rate in thousands
Echoing previous studies, the scientists said this premature aging could be due to the virus reducing oxygen in the brain, or inflammation of brain tissue that occurs when the body is trying to fight off Covid.
This study was funded in part by the National Institute for Health Research, an entity that directs the Department of Health’s government-funded health research.
Published in eClinicalMedicine, it warns of the long-term health problems of Covid.
Previous research has attributed a variety of long-term problems to Covid, from mental health issues to persistent fatigue and a loss of libido.