10 IQ points less after Corona: Study shows premature aging of the brain - especially in a group

Created: 05/13/2022, 09:24

By: Juliane Gutmann

Everyone has a word finding disorder.

But when it occurs more frequently and in conjunction with other cognitive problems, it can be a post-Covid episode.

Not everyone survives a corona infection without consequences.

If the body shows symptoms weeks after Covid-19, doctors speak of Long Covid.

This phenomenon is not very rare.

Around 10 percent of unvaccinated people who have recovered from Covid-19 will develop Long Covid, according to Dr.

Jördis Frommhold, chief physician in the department for respiratory diseases and allergies at the Median Klinik in Heiligendamm.

According to Frommhold, some studies would even show that it is a full 40 percent of the unvaccinated who develop Long Covid.

Those vaccinated would enjoy better Long Covid protection.

.

Therefore, Frommhold strongly advises against corona vaccination.

Long Covid can affect many organ systems such as the cardiovascular system, but neuropsychiatric late effects seem to be particularly pronounced and frequent.

This emerges from a report by Springer physicians, which was published on the

specialist portal .

According to an evaluation by the post-Covid outpatient clinic at the neurological clinic at Yale University, 60 percent of 63 patients named cognitive impairments such as

, it says here.

A severe corona infection is supposed to make you even

, as a recent British study suggests.

Survey on the course of the Corona virus

Are you forgetful and have to make do with sticky notes?

After a severe corona infection, forgetfulness can increase.

© Imago

The consequences of corona are equated with the brain degradation process between the ages of 50 and 70

Adam Hampshire from the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London and his team of British researchers had found that corona patients treated in an intensive care unit still suffered from severe cognitive impairment six months later.

As the British scientists inform in their study published in the journal

, the consequences of corona can be compared with the natural degradation process of the brain between the ages of 50 and 70.

As the medical journal further reports, this roughly corresponds to

Researchers analyzed data from 46 people treated in intensive care at Addenbrooke's Hospital for Covid-19 from March to July 2020.

16 patients required mechanical ventilation.

All underwent computer-assisted cognitive assessment with a mean follow-up of around six months after acute illness.

According to the medical journal, the tests were similar to those used in intelligence tests.

Among other things, the reaction speed was tested

.

The result: Compared to healthy control groups without post-Covid, the 46 subjects achieved poorer results.

They "were less accurate and slower in their answers," the researchers said in their study.

The patients who had been mechanically ventilated performed particularly poorly.

With regard to cognitive performance and processing speed, the scientists found that both "differed qualitatively from the profiles of normal aging and were comparable in magnitude to the effects of aging between the ages of 50 and 70".

More information on the study

"Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalized cohort"

Release Date

: May 1, 2022

Period of investigation

: March 10 to July 31, 2020 and follow-up examinations on average six months after the acute illness

Published

in the journal eClinicalMedicine (part of The Lancet)

Scope

: 46 study participants

Study authors

: British research team led by Adam Hampshire from the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London

(jg)