These Common Symptoms Could Mean COVID Is in Your Brain
SOME OF THE MOST OFT-CITED CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS MIGHT SUGGEST NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE
.
Throughout the
coronavirus pandemic
, doctors and scientists have learned more and more about the virus at its center. One of the most frightening things about COVID-19 is that it's a brand new disease—which means we are constantly
discovering new symptoms
. And it's now become clear that COVID is more than just a respiratory infection. In fact, new research shows that some of the most common COVID symptoms could mean that the disease is in your brain.
We've known for some time that coronavirus can affect your brain, but a new study from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has determined a link between symptoms that may provide further evidence of COVID's impact on the brain. Researchers found that patients who experienced more severe loss of taste and smell were more likely to report depression and anxiety—suggesting that those psychological symptoms are actually a sign of something more serious than simply a reaction to having coronavirus.
1 Depression and anxiety
Ahmad Sedaghat, MD, lead author of the University of Cincinnati study, said he had assumed depression and anxiety would have been a natural result of experiencing serious COVID symptoms like cough and shortness of breath. Instead, however, he and his team found that these symptoms were only significantly associated with loss of smell and taste.
"We think our findings suggest the possibility that psychological distress in the form of depressed mood or anxiety may reflect the penetration of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, into the central nervous system."
2 Loss of smell and taste
As early as March, researchers were suggesting that loss of taste and smell showed that coronavirus was attacking the central nervous system, and that the disease could have an effect on patients' brains.
3 Delirium
A July study in the journal
Brain
identified delirium as another troubling neurological symptom of coronavirus, and a surprisingly common one—up to 25 percent of patients may experience it. "We should be vigilant and look out for these complications in people who have had COVID-19," study co-author
Michael Zandi
, MA, said in a statement.
4. Clumsiness
Although clumsiness is not one of the more common symptoms of coronavirus, it has been reported by people recovering from COVID. As James Giordano, PhD, professor of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center, previously said that a coronavirus infection could "lead to lowered oxygen levels in the blood supply to the brain, which can induce diminished functional capacity of neural cells.
Inflammation caused by COVID could also enter the brain and change the structure of neural cells. Either of these explanations might account for the clumsiness some coronavirus patients have experienced.
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