COVID-19 and Brain Abnormalities: What We Know So Far
Brain's Frontal Lobes Electrical Activity Affected by COVID-19
Looks like the COVID-19 bug ain't just messing with your lungs and heart - it's causing some serious issues in the ol' noggin too. A study published in the journal Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsy sheds some light on this largely overlooked aspect of the pandemic.
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed EEG test results from over 600 COVID-19 patients, reported in 84 different studies. They found that around a third of these patients had EEG abnormalities in the frontal lobes of the brain.
"The most likely entry point for the virus is the nose, so there seems to be a connection between the part of the brain that's right next to that entry point," explains Dr. Zulfi Haneef, one of the study's co-authors.
The findings suggest that doctors need to start conducting more EEG tests on COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms, as well as other types of brain imaging like MRIs and CT scans. The virus might not be responsible for all the damage, though. Systemic effects of the infection, such as inflammation, low oxygen levels, sticky blood, and cardiac arrest, may play a role in EEG abnormalities that extend beyond the frontal lobes.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Around half of the patients who had follow-up EEG tests showed improvements.
Now, there's this thing called "brain fog" that some people who've recovered from COVID-19 are experiencing. It's like their brains are in a perpetual fog, causing issues with memory, focus, and concentration. A study uploaded to the preprint server MedRxiv found that those who claim to have had COVID performed less well on an online cognitive test than those who didn't believe they had the virus. According to experts, this doesn't prove that the infection caused long-term cognitive decline, but it does raise concerns about potential lasting effects on the brain.
"There might be long-term issues," warns Dr. Haneef. "A lot of people think they'll get sick, recover, and everything will go back to normal, but these findings tell us that there might be long-term issues."
To truly understand the impact of COVID-19 on the brain, more research is needed, focusing specifically on EEG patterns in COVID-19 patients with frontal lobe involvement. But one thing's for sure: this virus ain't just a walk in the park - it's a fight for your body... and your brain.
- The coronavirus, as found in a study published in Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsy, is increasingly being linked to brain abnormalities, specifically EEG abnormalities in the frontal lobes of the brain in over 600 COVID-19 patients.
- Science and health-and-wellness communities are increasingly focusing on the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain, with a growing concern about "brain fog," memory issues, and focus problems that some recovered patients are experiencing.
- Amidst studies about the connection between COVID-19 and brain abnormalities, mental health also becomes a pressing concern, as signs indicate there might be long-term issues related to COVID-19 recovery, stressing the importance of ongoing research in health-and-wellness as well as mental-health fields.
