Several COVID-19 “long haulers” experience at least four persistent neurological symptoms, such as brain fog, headache and loss of smell or taste, even though they have never been hospitalized because of the initial disease, according to a new study.
For the study, published Tuesday (March 23) in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, the researchers analyzed information from 100 COVID-19 long-haul trucks from 21 states. These patients were seen by telehealth or in person at the Neuro COVID-19 Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago from May to November 2020. None of the patients had been hospitalized when they first became ill with Symptoms similar to COVID-19, and everyone experienced persistent symptoms for more than six weeks. On average, patients were seen four to five months after the initial illness.
Half of the participants had already tested positive for COVID-19, while the other half had tested negative, but had symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The authors note that at the beginning of the pandemic, taking a COVID-19 test was difficult for patients who did not need hospitalization, and these patients may have cleared the infection by the time they were tested.
Related: ‘We just had no answers’: COVID-19 ‘Long-haulers’ still learning why they are sick
Overall, 85% of participants reported at least four neurological symptoms. The most common symptom was “brain fog” or thinking problems, reported by 81% of participants; followed by headaches, reported by 68%; and numbness or tingling, reported by 60% of the participants. More than half reported problems with taste or smell; 47% reported dizziness; 30% reported blurred vision; and 29% reported ringing in the ears.
Other common but not neurological symptoms include fatigue, depression and anxiety, insomnia and gastrointestinal symptoms.
In many patients, their symptoms fluctuated, or came and went, for months. When asked how much they thought they had recovered to the pre-COVID-19 level, on average, patients said they felt only 64% recovered after about five months.
“Our study indicates that ‘long COVID-19’ is an important emerging entity that requires specialization and multidisciplinary care,” wrote the authors in their article. It is unclear how many people have long COVID, but some studies suggest that about 30% of people with COVID-19 have persistent symptoms up to nine months after diagnosis, Live Science previously reported.
“While we don’t know the exact number of people who are affected by long COVID,
probably millions of people in the United States are affected by this syndrome, and it is affecting their quality of life and cognitive function, “said the study’s senior author, Dr. Igor Koralnik, head of Northwestern Medicine’s Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology , in a press conference article.
Further studies are needed to determine the causes of the long-standing COVID-19 and to help researchers find appropriate treatments for the condition, the authors said.
Interestingly, more than 40% of participants reported experiencing depression and anxiety prior to the diagnosis of COVID-19, suggesting that this may be a risk factor for long COVID, the authors said. In addition, 16% reported having an autoimmune disease prior to their diagnosis of COVID-19, which is twice as high as the prevalence of autoimmune diseases in the general population, and suggests that an autoimmune mechanism may play a role in long COVID, they said .
About 70% of the participants were women, which corresponds to the sex ratio observed in some other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, which affects three times more women than men, the authors said.
The authors note that their study was small and the majority of patients were white and, therefore, the finding may not apply to the general population. It is also possible that some patients who tested negative for COVID-19 were not infected with the virus. Researchers are studying ways to improve the diagnosis of COVID-19 for those who were previously infected; for example, they are studying how certain immune cells react to coronavirus proteins, which can help to identify those who were already infected.
Originally published on Live Science.
Originally published on Live Science.