Neurological Impact of COVID 19
COVID 19 has ravaged the world for over a year now, mainly affecting the respiratory system. But, what happens to the brain during COVID 19 infection. Based on a recent study, there are many adverse effects that occur to the brain, ranging from neurological disorders, like anxiety and depression, to life threatening conditions, like blood clots and strokes.
Based on a study published by the renowned journal Lancet, almost 1 in 3 people (of 236,000 interviewed), suffered from one of 14 neurological disorders, and many scientists were astonished by the astronomical number of people who suffered from neurological disorders when infected with COVID 19. Early in the pandemic, scientists and citizens alike were concerned that COVID 19 could affect the brain due to one of the most common symptoms of this disease being a loss of smell, and this implied that COVID 19 might be able to affect the neurons directly, via the olfactory nerve. However, this was very rare and did not happen in most cases. However, recent studies show that COVID 19 infection has both an indirect and direct impact on the brain, resulting in various neurological disorders.
The most common of these disorders were anxiety and depression, and it occurred more often in people who did not have these disorders previously. However, almost 1 in 50 people who had severe infections suffered from a stroke, and strokes were even more common for people who had underlying mental conditions. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health were stunned by this and based on the previous fact that the loss of smell did not adversely affect the brain, the scientists were even more puzzled. However, by examining postmortem brains in an MRI so powerful that it has not been authorized for use on humans, the researchers and scientist were able to determine that this was due to blood clots that formed in the brain of many COVID 19 patients, and this could potentially be the root cause of the neurological disorders caused by it.
Another complication cause by COVID 19 when it comes to the brain is that both the body and brain are inflamed by this, leading to communication molecules, like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine being scrambled. This is one of the primary causes of depression in COVID 19 patients, as depression is caused by the disruption of neurotransmission. Microglia, the brain’s immune system, is one of the primary cells that release inflammation during COVID 19 infection, and this was determined by conducting an autopsy on postmortem brains, and through this, researchers found that over 80% out of the 41 brains analyzed had microglia activated before death, along with microglia being activated in 43% of 184 COVID patients.
There are some questions lingering about this issue, but for now, physicians and researchers are trying to find out solutions to these issues that are now known to occur in COVID patients, and are hoping that these remedies can reduce the neurological impact of COVID 19.
Image credit: Brittanica.com
