Patients included in intensive care would present a cognitive decline similar to an aging of 20 years. This is demonstrated by a British study carried out on patients included in intensive care for a severe form of Covid-19. This new highlighting of the cognitive symptoms that are part of the long Covid calls into question the care to be offered to patients after admission to intensive care.
The current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in France
With 43,804 new cases on average last week, 23,812 hospitalizations and 1,596 intensive care admissions, the coronavirus pandemic Covid-19 is currently declining in France. However, she has not finished talking about her.
Scientific evidence is accumulating and explains how Covid-19 infection leaves traces in our body in the more or less long term. However, the long covid symptoms related to the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the brain remain poorly understood.
Long Covid symptoms similar to premature aging
Published in the magazine The Lancet, a study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) focuses on the future of the cognitive functions of patients admitted to intensive care because of an infection with SARS-CoV-2. It includes 46 patients, aged 51 on average, hospitalized between March and June 2020. In total, 16 patients were placed on artificial respirators. This is a device that takes over from the patient’s lungs if he can no longer breathe on his own.
These patients underwent a series of cognitive tests to assess their memory, attention and reasoning 6 months after hospitalization. They also responded to assessments about their mental health, including anxiety, depression and the post-traumatic stress. The results obtained by the patients were compared with data from the general British population.
Researchers have shown that patients are, on average, slower and less precise during tests. In addition, patients who received respiratory assistance had the lowest scores. Specifically, the study shows that the Covid-19 severity score and the need for respiratory assistance are predictors of poorer long-term cognitive performance. On the other hand, these works do not highlight this relationship with the psychological pathologies that may develop in these patients during the long Covid.
How to explain the appearance of these cognitive symptoms of long Covid?
Thus the results of this study demonstrate that the severity of the disease is a determining factor on the cognitive decline patients. Moreover, this decline persists over time. It should be noted that these results should be put into perspective with the initial field of patients included in intensive care. Indeed, they often present other pathologies. Thus, the results observed could be, in part, related to these pre-existing diseases.
For the authors of the study, this premature aging could be explained by a decrease in the blood supply to the brain caused by SARS-CoV-2. It could also result from massive inflammation of brain tissue during the immune response. Further research will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms involved.
Alexia F., Doctor in Neurosciences
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