Your Brain On COVID (3)

 

Two recently published studies on the long-term neurologic consequences of COVID-19 confirm the importance of taking every precaution possible — using every layer of protection available — to avoid the infection altogether.

We already knew that infections with SARS-CoV-2 can have profound impacts on adult brains. In February, The PediaBlog spotlighted a study revealing the mechanism for long-term neurologic symptoms that ranged from mild dizziness, headaches, and loss of smell to severe brain inflammation (encephalitis) and stroke:

The study identifies virus-induced changes in the brain’s blood vessels — “abnormalities in cerebral microvascular function” — associated with long-term neurologic impairment, resulting in worsened cognitive function, mental health, functional recovery, and quality of life.

 

We also learned that your brain on COVID was more likely to experience “brain fog” and other cognitive impairments, and symptoms of mental illness like anxiety and depression.

In a very large study published last week in The Lancet Psychiatry, researchers found that some of these neurologic and mental health symptoms can persist in children and adults up to two years after the acute infection subsides. Psychiatric symptoms appear to resolve considerably faster than the neurologic and cognitive ones, reports Frances Stead Sellers:

The analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and drawing on health records data from more than 1 million people around the world, found that while the risks of many common psychiatric disorders returned to normal within a couple of months, people remained at increased risk for dementia, epilepsy, psychosis and cognitive deficit (or brain fog) two years after contracting covid. Adults appeared to be at particular risk of lasting brain fog, a common complaint among coronavirus survivors.

The study’s findings were a mix of good and bad news, said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford and the senior author of the study. Among the reassuring aspects was the quick resolution of symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

 

The second study, published earlier this month in Pediatrics, looked at COVID-19 and acute neurologic complications in children. Analyzing electronic health data of more than 15,000 children who were hospitalized with COVID-19 at 52 children’s hospitals across the U.S. from March 2020 to March 2022, the researchers found the number of neurologic complications from COVID-19 to be disturbingly high. Rose Weldon says many of the children included in the study had no underlying medical or neurologic conditions:

Ultimately, the researchers found that of the 15,137 hospitalizations included in the analysis, 1,060 (7%) had a neurologic complication, with the most common being febrile seizures (3.8%), nonfebrile seizures (2.3%) and encephalopathy (2.1%).

Antoon said 75% of children who had a neurologic complication did not have an underlying neurologic comorbidity, and 60% of the same group were otherwise healthy.

 

The study’s conclusion should be clear for any parent who is resisting or delaying getting their child vaccinated against the pandemic virus:

Neurologic complications are common in children hospitalized with COVID-19 and are associated with worse hospital outcomes. Our findings emphasize the importance of COVID-19 immunization in children, especially in high-risk populations, such as those with neurologic co-morbidity.

 

As we’ve learned repeatedly during the pandemic, pediatric COVID risk is real and shouldn’t be minimized. Vaccination remains the best defense against an aggressive virus that can inflict very serious damage on any of us, especially children. It’s up to parents to protect them.

Read Your Brain On COVID (1) and Your Brain On COVID (2) on The PediaBlog.

 

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source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/08/25/your-brain-on-covid-3/