Neurocognitive symptoms are a suspected factor in “long COVID-19” syndrome, in which disease symptoms persist months after recovery. In fact, adults with a relatively mild course of the disease may report memory loss fully eight months after recovery, according to a new study.
The findings suggest that COVID-19 is not really a mild disease, no matter its course, the researchers have concluded. “It also questions whether the current home-treatment strategies are optimal for the long-term outcome,” wrote Arne Søraas, Ph.D., of Oslo University Hospital, Norway.
Søraas and colleagues collected data from individuals who had not been hospitalized for the disease. Information included the prevalence of self-reported post-COVID-19 memory issues, underlying medical conditions and additional known contributors to memory problems.
At the eight-month follow-up, the prevalence of memory problems in a participant group who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 was higher than that of a control group with a negative test or of an untested control population, according to Søraas.
Most participants who tested positive for the infection also reported a worsening of their health compared with one year prior, Søraas and colleagues noted.
The findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may negatively affect memory even eight months after recovery from a mild case of the disease, they said. “And this can be associated with a worsening of health and other symptoms of [post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection] syndrome,” the researchers wrote.
Full findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
