Disentangling the cognitive, physical, and mental health sequelae of COVID-19, 2022, Wild et al

Highlights

• Survivors of COVID-19 exhibit cognitive differences in specific domains
• Speed of processing, verbal, and reasoning are affected, but not memory function
• Performance in affected domains is linked to physical but not mental health
• These effects are observed in mild and hospitalized cases of COVID-19

Summary

As COVID-19 cases exceed hundreds of millions globally, many survivors face cognitive challenges and prolonged symptoms. However, important questions about the cognitive effects of COVID-19 remain unresolved. In this cross-sectional online study, 478 adult volunteers who self-reported a positive test for COVID-19 (mean = 30 days since most recent test) perform significantly worse than pre-pandemic norms on cognitive measures of processing speed, reasoning, verbal, and overall performance, but not short-term memory, suggesting domain-specific deficits. Cognitive differences are even observed in participants who did not require hospitalization. Factor analysis of health- and COVID-related questionnaires reveals two clusters of symptoms—one that varies mostly with physical symptoms and illness severity, and one with mental health. Cognitive performance is positively correlated with the global measure encompassing physical symptoms, but not the one that broadly describes mental health, suggesting that the subjective experience of “long COVID” relates to physical symptoms and cognitive deficits, especially executive dysfunction.

Open access, https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00299-3

 

It's good to see things moving forward with an understanding that much of this is about executive dysfunction. It took a long time to get started but recent efforts on brain fog appear to be genuinely progressing, getting the basic vocabulary right is significant in itself.

And this is also in line with prior findings. I don't have any graph saved but there have been a few studies on this, I think with the SF-36, that showed significant deterioration for pwME in all dimensions, except mental health, which holds up pretty good. A bit lower than the healthy population, but insignificant compared to physical and cognitive function. So it was always the case that cognitive dysfunction correlated strongly with physical symptoms, independent of generic "mental health" aspects. It just wasn't accepted.

Doesn't seem to have clued in on issues with multitasking, although that probably falls under executive dysfunction. Because then they would probably have found different results with short term memory. I can remember a few things, but if I get even minimally distracted and have to pay attention to a different thing, it's usually gone.

 

I was listening to British/Canadian neuroscientist Professor Adrian Owen discussing this paper on the CBC this morning and he was saying that memory is not affected, which is an important finding.

He didn't talk about the physical energy depletion, mostly cognitive issues, but that would be more in his field I guess.

 

When memory retrieval and learning are affected, memory is affected. This is like having a car and no fuel. It's not accurate to say you can use the car since it would work if it had fuel. The concept of working here requires both a functioning car and the resources it needs to function. There being no "structural damage" means little when it can't be used.

 

Professor Owen launched the world’s largest sleep-and-cognition study and found that the cognitive impairment in COVID-19 patients resembles that of healthy study participants who are sleep-deprived.