Coronavirus: Brain Fog

Here's a follow-up to my previous blog post that looked into the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on those who have recovered via a study published from Northwestern Medicine. The study looked at altered mental function after recovery.  

The New York Times via MSN (Oct 11) looks into this study by discussing it with the senior author as well as talking with specific individuals suffering from brain fog:

It’s becoming known as Covid brain fog: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly, Covid survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally.

“There are thousands of people who have that,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious disease at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, who has already seen hundreds of survivors at a post-Covid clinic he leads. “The impact on the work force that’s affected is going to be significant.

Dr. Koralnik states that he has seen hundreds of survivors in Chicago. Since he is in neuro-infectious disease, I'm going to assume that all the survivors had some degree of an altered mental function. Since I suspect many don't get to see someone of his specialty, I bet there are plenty more out there in the Chicago area. According to the study 21.6% of the people in the study were not able to regain their prior mental function. No one knows what causes brain fog, but one theory is:

Confusion, delirium and other types of altered mental function, called encephalopathy, have occurred during hospitalization for Covid-19 respiratory problems, and a study found such patients needed longer hospitalizations, had higher mortality rates and often couldn’t manage daily activities right after hospitalization.

But research on long-lasting brain fog is just beginning. A French report in August on 120 patients who had been hospitalized found that 34 percent had memory loss and 27 percent had concentration problems months later. 

So the Northwestern Medicine study has an estimate of 21.6% being unable to regain their prior mental function while the French report is saying that 27% had concentration problems months later. An immediate question that came to mind was what does months later mean? According to the study: Here, we describe a single-centre study assessing post-discharge persistent symptoms and HRQoL [Health-related quality of life] of patients hospitalized in our COVID-19 ward unit more than 100 days after their admission. So at least 3 months later, individuals are still suffering from brain fog type symptoms.

In my previous blog post, it was argued via the Northwestern Medicine study that encephalopathy mainly impacts older individuals. In the article, they talk to five individuals ages 31, 50, 53, 60 and 61. Now I'm not sure what the defining line between older and younger might be. Being 31 would be considered young in my book. Perhaps 50 and older would be consider older. I don't know. Yet, all those individuals are too young to retire. If this brain fog is a permanent problem, the United States may have millions of individuals unable to work. It is also a reason to avoid this virus as much as possible, because who would want to live like this:

“I look at all my pictures of Paris, trying to remember,” he said, showing a selfie of the couple at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. “We went and saw a Madonna concert, we went to the Eiffel Tower, we went to the Catacombs. And I remember nothing, nothing at all.”