Everything We Know About Covid-19's Impact On The Brain
As researchers have learned more about Covid-19 and its impact on the body, they have begun to recognise that the well-documented pulmonary effects of the virus are just the tip of the iceberg.
Increasingly, doctors and scientists are focused on how Covid-19 impacts the brain in big and small ways — none of them good. As one neuroscientist said in the journal Nature: “The neurological symptoms are only becoming more and more scary.”
Experts are still digging into the neurological impact of Covid-19, and there are perhaps more questions than answers at this point. But here are some of the biggest findings to date:
Neurological injuries from Covid-19 may actually be pretty common.
While the coronavirus-brain connection was once thought to be pretty rare, it now seems that may not be the case.
Research published in October by a team with New York University suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, leads to neurological injuries in roughly 1 out of every 7 people infected.
Those injuries run the gamut in severity, from temporary confusion to seizures and stroke. And they can occur without the virus appearing to directly enter the brain or the nervous system, suggesting many neurological injuries associated with Covid-19 are a secondary effect of becoming really sick with the virus, which can lead to problems like oxygen loss and blood clots.
To that end, the researchers behind the NYU study have argued their findings show that doctors who treat patients with serious Covid-19 must be aggressive in getting oxygen levels stable. If they cannot, the brain may pay a steep price.
Severe effects, like inflammation of the brain, are possible.
Though rare, cases of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, have been documented among infected individuals. Experts say that’s not altogether surprising, given that encephalitis is often caused by viral infections. But it is serious, as encephalitis can be life-threatening.
It is not yet clear why certain...
