The neurological and psychiatric symptoms that the disease will "leave behind". COVID-19 in a large number of patients records a recent study, highlighting at the same time the accompanying and pre-existing diseases that increase the risk
Hair loss and loss of libido: Two more symptoms of Long Covid
Another study outlines its footprint COVID-19 in the body, highlighting the chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms that the disease disappears in a large portion of patients after recovery. According to what he records, fatigue and headache were the most common symptoms four months after recovery, followed by muscle aches, cough, changes in taste and smell, fever, chills and nasal congestion.
The scientific enterprise is based on the preliminaries study findings CONGA (COVID-19 Neurological and Molecular Prospective Cohort Study) for 200 patients with coronavirus who took part in the research 125 days after a positive diagnosis for SARS-CoV-2. Some of the findings showed that:
- 80% of patients reported neurological symptoms with the most common being fatigue (68,5%) followed by headache (66,5%), changes in smell (54,5%) and taste (54%), a 47% met criteria for mild cognitive impairment with reduced vocabulary and impaired working memory and 21% reported confusion
Hypertension was the most common pre-existing condition
there were no reports of stroke, weakness or inability to control the muscles involved in speech, while coordination problems were rare symptoms
- 25% met criteria for depression, a group of patients who additionally reported preexisting diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea, and a history of depression
- for the 18% who reported anxiety, anemia and history of depression were associated.
Although neurological symptoms after COVID-19 have been captured in a number of studies, the interest in the present study is that the symptoms frequently reported by the participants were not verified in the clinical controls. As explained by Dr. Elizabeth Rutkowski, neurologist and responsible for the publication of the research, while the majority declared an altered sense of taste and smell, in practice the alteration was not verified. Conversely, for a large proportion of those who did not report the above symptoms, the relevant tests revealed a problem, which Dr. Rutkowski probably attributes to a change in the quality of taste and smell, rather than their impairment.
Fatigue and inflammation
According to Dr. Rutkowski, a possible explanation for post-Covid fatigue is increased levels of inflammation in the body, which is indicated by the high values of inflammatory markerseven at study completion and, on the other hand, examples of people with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis who reported fatigue as their top symptom. In short, the antibodies against the virus subside, the inflammatory response remains.
"They report physical fatigue manifested through shortness of breath, they go to wash the dishes and feel rapid pulses, they have to sit down immediately and they experience muscle pain as if they had just run a kilometer or more" explains the expert and adds that it may also occur to some extent neurological fatigue as expressed by reports of brain fog, difficulty concentrating, inability to read even an e-mail, and an overall mental exhaustion. Some studies, he notes, have even shown brain volume shrinkage as a result of even mild to moderate disease.
The role of the ACE2 receptor in neuropsychiatric manifestations
Participants in the CONGA study with the most symptoms also reported depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders. Here, an explanation should be sought in the effects of prolonged lockdowns and "anti-social" protection measures, but further investigation is needed as to how high-functioning individuals who were awake 80 hours a week were found to spend 23 out of 24 hours of the day in their bed.
But while questions remain unanswered about the long-term effects of the coronavirus and Long-Covid syndrome, as reported by the condition that describes prolonged symptoms such as chronic loss of taste and smell, brain fog, intense fatigue, depression, stress and insomnia, Dr. Rutkowski points to the need to protect against the virus.
As he concludes, a possible explanation for the widespread effects of SARS-CoV-2 is its attachment to angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) to enter cells and is mainly involved in functions such as regulating blood pressure and inflammation . The ACE2 receptor is found in neurons, cells of the nose, oral cavity, lungs and blood vessels, as well as in the heart, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract.
Source: ygeiamou.gr