“COVID-19 Patients Show No Evidence of Brain Damage, but Suffer Long-Term Complaints: Study by Maastricht University”

Editorial Medicalfacts/ Janine Budding 02 mei 2023 – 22:43

Patients admitted to hospital due to a severe COVID-19 infection show no evidence of brain damage from the disease afterwards. This is the conclusion of an extensive study led by Maastricht University. The patients studied did not appear to have more abnormalities in brain functions and thinking functions than other groups of seriously ill patients. However, more than half of the patients in the study suffered from all kinds of long-term complaints, such as fatigue, concentration problems, forgetfulness or a reduced quality of life. The cause of these complaints is not clear. That is precisely why, according to the researchers, they require constant attention, care and support.

Brain damage

The reason for the study was the neurological symptoms in intensive care (IC) patients, which doctors regularly saw during the first corona wave in the spring of 2020. The complaints of many ex-corona patients might also fit in with this. To investigate this, the scientists followed two groups of corona patients: 104 patients who had been admitted to the regular nursing ward due to a corona infection and 101 patients who ended up in the intensive care unit of a total of six large Dutch hospitals for the same reason. About 9 months after discharge from the hospital, the researchers used MRI scans and extensive cognitive tests not only to look at possible brain damage, but also at the direct consequences of possible brain damage, such as memory disorders. They also looked at complaints actually experienced, such as fatigue. “We expected that people from the group of IC patients, who were after all the most seriously ill, would also have the greatest brain damage and more complaints,” says Caroline van Heugten, professor of Clinical Neuropsychology in Maastricht and head of the Expertise Center for Brain Injury Limburg. “But that turned out not to be the case. The MRI scans of the brain were largely comparable, but we saw more microbleeds on the MRI scans of the ICU patients. Incidentally, patients with such microbleeds did not have more disorders or complaints.”

Mental complaints

The cognitive tests and the questionnaires that the researchers administered also showed no difference between the two groups of patients in terms of thinking functions or mental well-being. However, more than half of the patients followed suffered from all kinds of complaints, such as fatigue, forgetfulness, concentration problems or a reduced quality of life. The cause of these complaints is not yet clear. “Long-term complaints, such as fatigue and forgetfulness, also occur in people who were less seriously ill and who did not require hospitalization,” says Van Heugten. “Even in this group of people, the cause of the complaints is not yet known. Possibly not only the serious illness plays a role in the IC patients, but also the isolated nursing with a lot of fear and stress and the fear that was widely felt in society during the first corona wave. Similar complaints have been seen before in ICU survivors and are therefore not specific to COVID-19.”

The so-called NeNeSCo study was financed by a crowdfunding campaign by the Hersenstichting and carried out by Maastricht University, in collaboration with the Amsterdam UMC and UMC Utrecht. The results have recently been published in European Journal of Neurology.

Source: Maastricht University

Editorial Medicalfacts/ Janine Budding

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