Article published by Medical News Today
A recent study published in The Lancet sought to examine some long-term psychiatric and neurological problems related to SARS-CoV-2 compared to risks from other respiratory infections.
The researchers first identified nearly 1.2 million patients who had become infected with SARS-CoV-2 between January 20, 2020, and April 13, 2022, and pair matched them with others who had the same vaccination status, age, demographic and risk factors, who had not had COVID-19 but had experienced other respiratory infections.
Next, the authors analyzed the participants’ risk for 14 psychiatric and neurological diagnoses and compared the risk for these disorders to the control cohort. They also looked at how these risks differed before and after waves of infection that were dominated by the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants, respectively.
Among adults, there was an increased risk for brain fog, dementia, psychotic disorders, and epilepsy or seizures at the end of the 2-year follow-up.
The researchers further discovered that participants who had been infected with the Delta variant had an increased risk for ischaemic stroke, cognitive deficit, insomnia, anxiety disorders, and epilepsy or seizures when compared to participants who had been infected with the Alpha variant.
These findings emphasize there is a need for further research into the long-term impact of COVID-19.