Impact of COVID-19 infection on cognition and its association with neurological symptoms

Objective: To characterize the cognitive profile following COVID-19 infection and its possible association to clinical symptoms, emotional disturbance, biomarkers, and disease severity. Methods: This was a single-center cross-sectional cohort study. Subjects between 20- and 60-year old with confirme...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Almeria, M.; Cejudo, Juan Carlos; Sanz-Santos, José; Deus, Joan; Krupinski, Jerzy
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Estado:Published version
Data de publicação:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositório:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/60200
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/60200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2902
Nível de acesso:Acesso aberto
Palavra-chave:COVID-19
Cognitive impairment
Neurologic symptoms
Neuropsychology
Descrição
Resumo:Objective: To characterize the cognitive profile following COVID-19 infection and its possible association to clinical symptoms, emotional disturbance, biomarkers, and disease severity. Methods: This was a single-center cross-sectional cohort study. Subjects between 20- and 60-year old with confirmed COVID-19 infection were included. Evaluation was performed between April 2020 and July 2021. Patients with previous cognitive impairment and other neurological or severe psychiatric disorders were excluded. Demographic and laboratory data were extracted from the medical records. Results: Altogether 200 patients were included, 85 subjects were female (42.3%), and mean age was 49.12 years (SD: 7.84). Patients were classified into four groups: nonhospitalized (NH, n = 21), hospitalized without intensive care unit (ICU) nor oxygen therapy (HOSP, n = 42), hospitalized without ICU but with oxygen therapy (OXY, n = 107), and ICU (ICU, n = 31) patients. NH group was younger (p = .026). No significant differences were found in any test performed attending severity of illness (p > .05). A total of 55 patients reported subjective cognitive complaints (SCC). Subjects with neurological symptoms (NS) performed worse in trail making test B (p = .013), digits backwards (p = .006), letter&numbers (p = .002), symbol digit modalities test (p = .016), and Stroop color (p = .010) tests. Conclusions: OXY patients and females referred more SCC associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Objective cognitive performance was unrelated to SCC. No cognitive impairment was found regarding the severity of COVID-19 infection. Results suggest that NS such as headache, anosmia, and dysgeusia during infection were a risk factor for later cognitive deficits. Tests assessing attention, processing speed, and executive function were the most sensitive in detecting cognitive changes in these patients.