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Un déclin cognitif pourrait être une séquelle de la maladie à Covid-19. © Orawan, Fotolia

Reaches 20 years of cognitive aging!

Little by little, we are discovering the scale that SARS-CoV-2 infection can have in the long run. The authors demonstrated persistent and significant sequelae on the cognitive abilities of severely infected patients six months after the acute phase of infection.

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SARS-CoV-2 is not virus It is restricted to the upper airways as was originally thought. touches of many members, including the brain. from Data that already exists The literature suggests a link between the severe form of COVID-19 and persistent cognitive disorders. Authors from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London wanted to know more about this topic: Are persistent cognitive disorders related to some clinical aspect during acute stage Illness? Or is it related to the mental state of the patient at the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection? Are they repetitive? Their work has been published in the magazine electronic medicine Collection scalpel, April 28, 2022.

study design

This study included 46 patients who received intensive care for Covid-19 disease between 10 March 2020 and July 31, 2020. Among them, 16 subjects require a mechanical ventilation. Thanks to standardized scales, their cognitive abilities (memory, attention, thinking) can be assessed on average six months after the acute phase of the disease. evaluationA state of stress and anxiety Patients were also made. A control group of 460 people was formed. Subjects were matched by age. Data on the severity of COVID-19 disease and the patient’s mental state at the time Diagnosis and the Duration From hospitalizations were also collected.

10 less IQ points

People infected with SARS-CoV-2 were slower and more accurate in answering questions than people without the virus. These cognitive disturbances were associated with disease severity during the acute phase, but not with the presence of chronic mental illness at the time of diagnosis. The most affected aspects of the disease were Speed Processing skills and higher cognitive abilities as well as difficulties in “finding words”. The authors specify that deficits observed six months after a sharp shape It was equivalent to the cognitive loss typically seen in someone between their fifties and seventies, or 20 years of that aging. This corresponds to a loss of 10 IQ points!

This research needs to go deeper to find out if this deficiency has persisted over time or if it is just a convalescence stage. However, the potential for these disorders to occur should be known to health professionals for better management.

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