Cognitive problems seen in middle-aged COVID-19 survivors

Reuters - 23/10/2021 - A "substantial proportion" of middle-aged COVID-19 survivors with no previous dementia had cognitive problems more than half a year after diagnosis, researchers have found.

They looked at 740 people who ranged in age from 38 to 59. About half were white, and 63% were female. The average time from diagnosis was 7.6 months.

On tests of thinking skills, 20% had trouble converting short-term memories to long-term memories, 18% had trouble processing information rapidly, and 16% had trouble with skills needed for planning, focusing attention, remembering instructions, and juggling multiple tasks.

About one in four patients had been hospitalized, but most of them had not been critically ill.

"We can't exactly say that the cognitive issues were lasting because we can't determine when they began," said Dr. Jacqueline Becker of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, who coauthored the study published in JAMA Network Open. "But we can say that our cohort had higher than anticipated frequency of cognitive impairment" given that they were relatively young and healthy.

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3jsuM41 JAMA Network Open, online October 22, 2021.

By Reuters Staff



Posted on 23 October, 20212 November, 2021