COVID elevates risk of neurological issues, study suggests
A new, large-scale study from the University of Oxford offers up a bit of good and bad news for COVID patients past and present, Stat News reports.
In good news — though mood disorders like anxiety and depression are more common shortly after a COVID diagnosis, they are ultimately "transient, becoming no more likely after ... two months than following similar infections such as flu," Stat writes. The bad news? Up to two years post-COVID infection, the risk of developing a neurological condition like "brain fog," psychosis, or dementia is still higher than it is following other respiratory infections.
Though children were not more likely to be diagnosed with a mood disorder either immediately or in the years following a COVID infection, they "were still more likely than children recovering from other respiratory infections to have seizures and psychotic disorders," Stat writes. The risk of brain fog in children also dissipated after two years. "Overall, the likelihood of all these diagnoses was lower in children than in adults," Stat adds.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Published Wednesday in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study's findings carry "important implications for patients and health services as it suggests new cases of neurological conditions linked to COVID-19 infection are likely to occur for a considerable time after the pandemic has subsided," lead author Paul Harrison said in a statement, per Axios.
Overall, the analysis "adds to the growing body of evidence pointing to the long-lasting damage caused by the coronavirus," also known as "long COVID," Politico writes.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Scientists create 'meaty' rice for eco-friendly protein
Speed Read Korean scientists have invented a new hybrid food, consisting of beef muscle and fat cells grown inside grains of rice
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New images reveal Neptune and Uranus in different colours than originally thought
Speed Read Voyager 2 images from the 1980s led to 'modern misconception'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published