COVID elevates risk of neurological issues, study suggests

COVID-19 swab.
(Image credit: Paul Biris/Getty Images.)

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.

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Brigid Kennedy

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.