What We Know About Covid’s Impact on Your Brain
Scientists worry that persistent cognitive issues caused by Covid signal that a surge in dementia cases and other mental conditions is on the horizon.
Brain PET images of patients with long Covid from three French nuclear medicine departments, CHRU of Nancy, Timone Hospital, APHM Marseille and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, APHP, Paris.
Source: Courtesy of Eric Guedj, Aix-Marseille University, France, adapted from European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, July 2022.
Five years after the pandemic began, researchers are increasingly recognizing the toll Covid can take on brain health. Many of those who have had the disease struggle with persistent issues such as brain fog, depression and cognitive slowing, hindering their ability to work and otherwise function. Scientists have found that those who have had Covid are more likely to have elevated levels in their blood of the same proteins that are prevalent in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers are concerned that the findings could be early warning signs of a future surge in cases of dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions, prolonging Covid’s societal, economic, and health burden.
In 2021, UK researchers reported early results from a study comparing brain scans taken before and after the pandemic began. They discovered signs of damage and accelerated aging in the brain, particularly in the part responsible for smell — even in patients who had experienced mild cases of Covid months earlier.