‘Brain fog’ can linger for months after Covid-19

The research, from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, is based on an analysis of 100 Covid-19 “long-hauler” patients whose symptoms have lasted at least six weeks. All originally had a mild illness: sore throat, cough, low-grade fever.

Sixty-eight percent said they had headaches, and more than half said they had problems with loss of taste and smell, numbness or tingling, and muscle pain.

Patients “also had some respiratory problems, despite the fact they never had pneumonia or were hospitalized for low oxygen levels,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik, a study author and chief of neuro-infectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. Koralnik also oversees the facility’s post-Covid clinic.

Before their Covid-19 long-haul symptoms, 42 percent of the respondents had reported depression or anxiety, and 16 percent reported having had an autoimmune disease.

“We want to understand the most effective interventions for these patients,” Koralnik said. “We’re trying to devise the best ways to manage and treat these patients, but further research is necessary.”

Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and “TODAY.”

Category: Science

Source: NBC