Covid-19 hasn’t finished talking about it. According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, severe cases of the disease lead to severe cognitive impairment. The study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine is further evidence of the harmful effects of the virus on the organism and the psychological state of the individual.

Worse and slower results

The study tested 46 patients between the ages of 28 and 83, who were hospitalized in critical care due to Covid-19, between March and July 2021 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Among them, 16 were placed on resuscitators. To compare their results, the researchers also ran tests on another 66,000 people in the general public. These tests showed that people who were cured of the long-term Covid virus had less accurate results and longer response times compared to the control group. The results obtained are below the researchers’ estimates.

20 year old brain

So severe cases of Covid-19 will have an effect on individuals’ IQ, which can drop by as much as 10 points in some cases. For comparison, cognitive losses are similar with age 20 years, between 50 and 70 years. Concretely, this translates to various aspects, such as difficulty finding a word, longer reaction time, or even difficulty completing verbal comparisons.

A minority of mild cases

Mild forms of the coronavirus can also develop into long-term cognitive symptoms, but they are only in a minority. Conversely, the study showed that a significant proportion of patients (between 33 and 76%) who developed severe Covid-19 developed cognitive symptoms for up to six months after their recovery.

Patients recovering from coronavirus infection may need long-term care due to cognitive deficits, researchers said.