As reported on October 13, 2020, a new study, carried out by the US-based Indiana University School of Medicine, has found that more than 50 per cent of the cured patients of Covid-19 had one or the other form of brain fog. As per the findings, healthcare workers have reported difficulties in recalling what a patient complained about only a minute ago, whereas some others even complained that they felt like suffering from dementia. Another 28 per cent complained in concentrating on the work they did whereas, about 31 per cent patients reported sleep disorder. As per the the French study, these symptoms persisted for up to four months after recovery from Covid-19. The study was conducted on 120 Covid-19 survivors.
This is the first survey conducted by Indiana University, but not the first to highlight the functional disability of brain due to Covid-19 as University of Paris, France, had also found that around 34 per cent cured patients complained of memory loss in August, 2020. As per another study, though Covid-19 is considered basically a respiratory illness, its causative agent (the SARS-Covid-2 coronavirus) attacks the brain.
There are some indications also that the novel coronavirus infects the brain to make copies of the brain cells to ‘steal’ away oxygen and starve the brain cells to death. As a result, the patients complain about headache, confusion, and delirium. Though the intriguing part of this inability to focus on work is not yet fully explained, the scientists think these symptoms are more common among patients who were discharged from hospitals recently. Thus, longer hospitalisation could be one of the reasons.
Another growing speculation among the scientific community is that it is triggered by ‘persistent immune activation’. SARS-CoV-2 is new to human body and prompts the immune system of some patients to overreact. Consequently, it leads to inflammation of blood vessels. This condition is called encephalopathy, which alters mental function of a person.
Besides, two more studies also found that Covid-19 patients continue to complain about persistence of symptoms weeks and months after recovery. As per researchers, they found that over 75 per cent patients suffer from long-lasting symptoms, such as dyspnoea, which is shortness of breathing. Neurological symptoms were the most frequent complaints after respiratory symptoms among Covid-19 survivors. Similarly, reduced lungs function was another major symptom among them. In the US also, the researchers found anosmia (ability to differentiate one smell from the other), ageusia (the loss of ability to detect taste), difficulty concentrating, dyspnoea, memory loss, confusion, headache, heart palpitations, chest pain, pain with deep breaths, dizziness, and tachycardia (a condition that makes heart beat irregularly and rapidly, usually more than 100 beats per minute) as the most common symptoms among Covid-19 survivors.
Brain fog is a medical condition when a patient complains about troubling cognitive symptoms. Confusion, delirium, difficulty in concentration, dizziness, problems in grasping routine conversations, and memory loss are among a set of complaints that several cured coronavirus patients have reported. Medically, it is a collective term for a list of over 100 physical neurological and psychological symptoms that make it difficult, for a person to carry on day-to-day routine work. Scientists warn that the phenomenon may go on for several months.
Courtesy: India Today