March 17 (UPI) —<\/span> About 70% of people who suffer long-haul COVID-19 experience concentration and memory problems several months after becoming infected, a study published Thursday by Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found.<\/p>\n Many of them perform worse in tests intended to assess brain function than those who have not been infected with the virus or did not experience long-term symptoms, the researchers said.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n In addition, roughly half of the “long COVID” patients in the study reported problems in convincing medical professionals to take their symptoms seriously, the data showed.<\/p>\n This may be due to brain-related symptoms not receiving the same attention as lung problems or fatigue, researchers said.\n<\/p>\n “People think that long COVID is ‘just’ fatigue or a cough, but cognitive issues are the second most common symptom, and our data suggest this is because there is a significant impact on the ability to remember,” study co-author Lucy Cheke said in a press release.\n<\/p>\n “There is growing evidence that COVID-19 impacts the brain, and our findings reflect that,” said Cheke, a researcher in psychology at University of Cambridge in England.<\/p>\n So-called “long COVID,” or symptoms that persist for many months, may lead to long-term breathing and heart disorders, research suggests.\n<\/p>\n Long COVID has also been compared with chronic fatigue syndrome and linked with memory and mental health problems, as well as declines brain and kidney function.<\/p>\n As many as 75% of those infected with the virus experience symptoms for weeks, while others — estimates vary — still are sick for six to eight months after testing positive.<\/p>\n For this study, Cheke and her colleagues evaluated 181 long COVID-19 patients and monitored their symptoms over 18 months.\n<\/p>\n The majority of the participants had suffered COVID-19 at least six months before the study began, though very few had been ill enough to be hospitalized, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Of the study participants, 78% reported difficulty concentrating, 69% reported brain fog, 68% reported forgetfulness and 60% reported problems finding the right word in speech, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Participants were asked to carry out multiple tasks to assess their decision-making and memory, including remembering words in a list and remembering which two images appeared together, according to the researchers.\n<\/p>\n Their performance on these tests was compared to that of 185 people who have not had COVID-19, the researchers said.<\/p>\n The results revealed a consistent pattern of ongoing memory problems in those who had suffered COVID-19 infection, they said.<\/p>\n Thinking and memory problems were more pronounced in people whose overall ongoing symptoms were more severe, the data showed.<\/p>\n In addition, participants who experienced fatigue and neurological symptoms, such as dizziness and headache, during their initial illness were more likely to have cognitive symptoms later on, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Those who were still experiencing neurological symptoms, such as headaches and dizziness, were particularly impaired on cognitive tests, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n About 75% of study participants with severe ongoing symptoms of long COVID reported long periods of being unable to work, the data showed.<\/p>\n Study participants will continue to be monitored, using both symptom reports and objective cognitive tests, to see how long their symptoms persist, the researchers said.<\/p>\n “This is important evidence that when people say they’re having cognitive difficulties post-COVID, these are not necessarily the result of anxiety or depression,” study co-author Muzaffer Kaser said in a press release.<\/p>\n “Memory difficulties can significantly affect people’s daily lives, including the ability to do their jobs properly,” said Kaser, a researcher in psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Up to 70% of people with ‘long COVID’ experiencing thinking and memory problems, according to a new study. File photo by Debbie Hill\/UPI | License Photo March 17 (UPI) — About 70% of people who suffer long-haul COVID-19 experience concentration and memory problems several months after becoming infected, a study published Thursday by Frontiers in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[188,176,6294,2406,5802,28,6295,6296],"class_list":["post-1024653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-covid","tag-finds","tag-impacts","tag-long","tag-memory","tag-study","tag-sufferers","tag-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/div>\nUp to 70% of people with ‘long COVID’ experiencing thinking and memory problems, according to a new study. File photo by Debbie Hill\/UPI | License Photo<\/div>\n\n