Neurological

Neurological symptoms that persist in many long-distance COVID-19 drivers

HealthDay News – According to a study published online March 23 in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, long-distance COVID-19 drivers are often experiencing neurological symptoms. 81 percent suffer from brain fog and 85 percent from fatigue.

Edith L. Graham, MD of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues conducted a prospective study of the first 100 consecutive patients (50 coronavirus 2 with severe acute respiratory syndrome 2) [SARS-CoV-2] positive and 50 negative) between May and November 2020 in a neuro-COVID-19 clinic. Patients had symptoms of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s COVID-19, were not hospitalized, and had neurological symptoms that lasted for more than six weeks. The frequency of neurological symptoms was recorded and patient-reported quality of life measurements and standardized cognitive scores were analyzed.

The researchers found that depression / anxiety and autoimmune diseases were the most common comorbidities (42 and 16 percent, respectively). Brain fog, headache, numbness / tingling, dysgeusia, anosmia, and myalgia were the major neurological manifestations (81, 68, 60, 59, 55 and 55 percent, respectively); Only anosmia was more common in SARS-CoV-2-positive compared to SARS-CoV-2-negative patients (74 versus 36 percent). 85 percent of the patients were tired. Both groups had impaired quality of life in the areas of cognitive and fatigue. Compared to a demographically adjusted US population, SARS-CoV-2-positive patients showed poorer attention and cognitive tasks in working memory.

“The long-term impact of ‘Long COVID’ on quality of life and the potential return to normalcy through loss of productivity and persistent cognitive dysfunction can be significant as the pandemic continues to escalate,” the authors write.

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Subjects:

Anxiety Disorders Cognitive Impairment COVID19 Depression General neurological headache

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