As COVID-19 grips the world, scientists are chasing after it to find the full spectrum of effects as it interacts with human biochemistry. While known for its characteristic cough and breathing difficulty, at the University of Liverpool, researchers have studied the neurological complications in 153 patients that were hospitalized due to the virus. Using online portals, they garnered patient information from brain-related specialists to create the largest study of its kind to date. They published findings in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry that suggest the virus may be responsible for various neurological and psychological effects, the most common being a stroke.
Compiling Data on Neurological Issues and COVID-19 Patients
The researchers built an online network that encouraged other researchers and specialists to upload their own research relating to various neurological properties. They included the major neurological centers from across the UK, including Association of British Neurologists (ABN), the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), and the British Association of Stroke Physicians (BASP) which added patient symptoms in real time and considered the other demographic, geographic, and temporal components of the individuals and the trends across them. In Financial Express, they explain this study was unique in including patients spread across the nation and the larger sample size of the study. Of the 153 patients with brain-related complications, 125 had full data sets uploaded to the portal and were used for some of the measures.
The Brain-Related Effects
The researchers found stroke to be the most frequent brain complication, with 62% of those surveyed suffering from a stroke post-coronavirus, three quarters of which were due to blood clots in the brain. The next most common neurological symptoms was confusion and behavior changes, 31% presented with altered mental states with abnormal behavior and confusion. 7% of the patients experienced miscellaneous neurological issues (encephalopathy), and another 5% were diagnosed with brain inflammation. The final 18% of patients received psychiatric diagnoses, and 92% of those were new diagnoses. However, it’s uncertain whether they’re actually new or just newly diagnosed.
—–
The scientists believe these findings give important insights into possible brain-related consequences of COVID-19, though it doesn’t show what proportion of total patients may be affected.
“To our knowledge, this is the first systematic, nationwide UK surveillance study of the breadth of acute complications of COVID-19 in the nervous system, undertaken through rapid mobilisation of UK professional bodies representing neurology, stroke or acute medicine, psychiatry, and intensive care.”
They hope that further research will find how common such consequences may be and for what populations. This could give key insights into the mechanisms of the virus, and lead to appropriate treatments.
