On July 1, a study was published linking children infected with coronavirus and neurological symptoms such as encephalopathy, or an altered mental state. Now, scientists are saying that COVID-19 can lead to several severe neurological complications causing brain damage.
They fear that there may be a new wave of patients suffering from brain damage as millions are recovering from coronavirus. Neurological complications include encephalitis (brain inflammation), delirium, and psychosis.
A team from University College London (UCL) published a study that notes 43 recovering COVID-19 patients. They had suffered from temporary brain dysfunction, had a stroke, or had nerve damage or other brain effects. Moreover, the team observed brain damage and not just neurological symptoms.
Dr. Michael Zandi, from UCL's Institute of Neurology, describes a pattern in the history of pandemics. The increasing amount of neurological damage in COVID-19 patients may be 'similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic.'
Brain Damage
In June, doctors published a case report on a man who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome after getting infected with SARS-CoV-2. The autoimmune disease which delays neural signals has been linked to the prior SARS and MERS pandemics. The 57-year-old American man shared a rare neurological disease with a few early cases in China, Spain, and Italy; a total of 10 reported cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome thus far.
As medical experts continue to link various neurological conditions to the respiratory illness, there is a growing concern of the virus' impact on the brain. 'My worry is that we have millions of people with Covid-19 now. And if in a year's time we have 10 million recovered people, and those people have cognitive deficits,' said neuroscientist Adrian Owen from the Western University in Canada.
'Then, that's going to affect their ability to work and their ability to go about activities of daily living,' Owen continued. 'Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic...remains to be seen,' said Dr. Zandi.
Read Also: Children With Coronavirus Are Found to Suffer Neurological Symptoms As Well
Neurological Effects
The new study published in the Brain journal of neurology, nine patients were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), or inflammation of the brain found in children who lacked respiratory symptoms. Normally, the team said, that one adult every month would develop ADEM, but that number had increased to four per month.
Ross Paterson, another author of the study, added that since the pandemic has only happened less than a year, the long-term damage the virus can cause is still unknown. 'Doctors need to be aware of possible neurological effects, as early diagnosis can improve patient outcomes.'
Currently, Owen is running the covidbrainstudy.com project with an international team of researchers. Patients can sign up and take cognitive tests to measure if their brain functions have changed since getting infected with coronavirus.
He added, 'This disease is affecting an enormous number of people. That's why it's so important to collect this information now.'
