Corona infection may increase the risk of neurological and psychiatric problems

Created: 08/23/2022, 08:00

By: Judith Brown

A corona infection can not only trigger long-term consequences.

A recent study also shows a slightly increased risk of neurological diseases.

For around two years, researchers have been dealing with the corona virus that appeared at that time, which has been keeping the world in suspense since the beginning of 2020.

Since then, science has repeatedly provided new insights into Sars-CoV-2.

A lot has also been researched into the long-term consequences from which those affected can still suffer for several weeks or even months after an infection.

Corona infection may increase the risk of neurological problems

For example, a study showed that virus particles were still in the brain of some long-Covid patients up to 230 days after the first symptoms appeared.

Corona can also accelerate symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

According to another large-scale current study, a corona infection could increase the risk of neurological and psychiatric problems.

The corona virus is said to increase the risk of dementia and epilepsy.

However, new study results need to be checked further.

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For their study, published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, the research team led by Maxime Taquet from the University of Oxford compared data from 1.28 million Covid-19 patients from different parts of the world - including the USA, Great Britain, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, India, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Those affected were diagnosed with corona disease between January 2020 and April 2022.

The similarly sized comparison group consisted of people suffering from a respiratory disease.

They were very similar to the Covid patients in terms of age, gender, race and other characteristics.

The results of the study show that two years after a corona infection there is a slightly increased risk of certain psychiatric and neurological problems.

Corona infection: higher risk of dementia and epilepsy

Accordingly, the study results indicate that Covid-19 patients have a slightly higher risk of dementia, epilepsy, cognitive impairment and psychotic disorders.

In the group of people with corona between the ages of 18 and 64, there were 640 cases of cognitive impairment per 10,000 patients.

In contrast, 550 cases occurred in the control group.

There were similar differences in dementia: 450 cases occurred in 10,000 Covid patients over the age of 64, while there were 330 cases in the comparison group.

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However, the researchers have good news in relation to depression and anxiety diagnoses.

Because they found that an excess of these diseases after a Covid 19 illness only lasts for a short time and does not occur in children at all.

For example, affective disorders were at the same level as in the comparison group 43 days after the corona infection.

The same was true for anxiety disorders after 58 days.

There was no increased incidence of depression or anxiety disorders among those under the age of 18.

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Does Corona increase the risk of neurological diseases?

Study results need to be further verified

According to Taquet, the results "shed new light on the longer-term consequences for people's mental health and brain after COVID-19 infection."

However, some clinical features need further verification.

The authors of the study themselves, for example, concede that corona cases with few or no symptoms could be underrepresented based on the database.

In addition, missing information in the patient files about Covid diseases or corona vaccinations could lead to a distortion of the results.

In addition, the severity of the respiratory diseases in the control group was not taken into account, which in turn limits the validity of the study, according to Peter Berlit, neurologist and Secretary General of the German Society of Neurology (DGN).

"It is known that latent dementia often becomes manifest as a result of a serious event, such as Covid-19 disease, without there being a causal connection," explains Berlit.

Therefore, the study does not show an increased risk of dementia in Covid patients.

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