As more and more clinical data is collected by physicians treating SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus patients around the world, the extent and variety of symptoms associated with the infection are becoming better known. Recent clinical studies have notably highlighted the severity and frequency of neurological symptoms which, in some cases, can lead to significant brain damage.
A growing body of research shows that COVID-19 is linked to life-threatening brain damage and neurological problems. According to a study published in the journal Brain, some patients with coronavirus suffer from cerebral inflammation accompanied by episodes of delirium.
Other patients develop nervous system disorders like Guillain-Barré syndrome that can cause paralysis, while some have fatal strokes. ” We see things in the way COVID-19 affects the brain that we have never seen before with other viruses Says Michael Zandi. The researchers found that the neurological symptoms were not limited to patients with severe cases (those who require ventilation or additional oxygen).
Neurological disorders and delusions
The study authors examined 43 coronavirus patients aged 16 to 85 years. All were treated National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery from London between April 9 and May 15. Ten of these patients had severe brain swelling that was accompanied by delirium. A 55-year-old woman with no psychiatric history started acting weird three days after she got out of the hospital, according to her husband.
She donned and removed her coat several times, then began to have auditory and visual hallucinations, including saying that she could see lions and monkeys at home. Then, the patient developed Capgras syndrome, a psychiatric disorder in which a person thinks that a friend or family member has been replaced by an identical impostor.
Brain damage independent of the severity of the lung damage
Another dozen patients observed in the study had swelling in their central nervous system; one person in this group has died. Nine of these 12 patients were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a rare type of inflammation that usually attacks the nerves of the brain and spinal cord of children after an infection such as mumps or measles.