April 28, 2024

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Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19



 

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19.

A new study published in The Lancet Psychiatry provides the most comprehensive study to date of the long-term neurological effects of COVID-19, with researchers surveying more than 1 million people.

Follow up for two years. Risk of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety increased after infection with SARS-CoV-2, returned to normal after a few months, but rates of dementia in older adults were still found up to 24 months after acute illness, findings show Increase.

 

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19

 

A year ago, a team at Oxford University published a study showing that symptoms of long-duration COVID-19 can still be detected up to 12 months after initial infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Now, the same team has provided a larger follow-up of COVID patients up to two years after their initial infection.

 

The study looked at 1.28 million COVID patients and matched them with a control group of patients with any other type of viral respiratory infection.

The key goal was to understand what specific effects COVID-19 had on the risk of 14 neurological and psychiatric diseases compared to other viral infections.

 

The good news is that any increased risk of mood disorders, such as anxiety or depression, after contracting COVID appears to return to baseline within a few months of acute illness.

In children in particular, the researchers found no difference in rates of depression or anxiety caused by COVID compared to other respiratory infections.

 

But in adults, there are some signs that neurological problems persist up to two years after contracting COVID.

Compared with other respiratory infections, adults under the age of 65 showed higher rates of brain fog after COVID-19 (640 cases per 10,000 people after infection compared to 550 cases per 10,000 people before infection).

 

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19

 

Adults over 65 appear to show the most significant long-term neurological problems, brain fog (1540 per 10,000 after infection vs.

1230 per 10,000 before infection), dementia (450 vs. 330) and psychotic disorders (85 vs. 60) were increased.

 

Paul Harrison, who led the new study, said: “…It is good news that the overdose of depression and anxiety diagnoses following COVID-19 infection was transient and was not observed in children.

However, Worryingly, some other diseases, such as dementia and seizures, are still more likely to be diagnosed after contracting COVID-19, even two years later.

Also, it seems that Omicron, although less severe in acute illness , but the rates of these diagnoses are also comparable.”

 

Concerns about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on neurodegenerative diseases have surfaced since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the years following the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, doctors saw a sharp rise in the incidence of Parkinson’s disease, and researchers believe that some viral infections may accelerate the development of the pre-existing neurodegenerative disease.

 

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19

 

Research presented a few months ago suggests there may already be signs of increased rates of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke among older COVID survivors.

It’s important to note that the absolute increase in dementia risk from COVID remains relatively low, said Max Taquet, co-author of the new study.

 

“I think it’s pretty clear that this is not a ‘tsunami’ of new dementia cases,” Taquet said on a news conference call reported by STATNews. Again, I think given the magnitude of the consequences of a dementia diagnosis, it’s hard to ignore “In absolute terms, a population increase of 1.2% compared to other previous infections is hard to ignore.”

 

The strength of this study is its robust control group, allowing for a deeper understanding of new risks posed by SARS-CoV-2 rather than any general increased risk posed by other types of respiratory infections.

In this case, the study does suggest that COVID may increase a person’s risk of developing dementia, but exactly how this happens remains unclear.

 

Some researchers have begun to study how the novel coronavirus affects neurological diseases, such as a recent study that found similarities between Alzheimer’s disease and the long-term COVID-19. But it will take a lot of work to really understand the long-term effects of COVID.

 

UCL researchers Jonathan Rogers and Glyn Lewis, who were not involved in the new study, point to the new findings as worrying, but also underscore how complex and heterogeneous dementia is, so it is important to understand the relationship between COVID and dementia now. It is still a bit early to draw any conclusions.

 

“…the onset of dementia is insidious, and it is likely that some participants in the cohort had undiagnosed or subclinical cases at baseline,” Rogers and Lewis wrote in a commentary on the new study. “While worrying, findings on psychosis and dementia need to be replicated in cohorts with more thorough confirmation of case status.”

 

The new study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

 

 

 

 

 

Oxford study finds increased risks of dementia two years after contracting COVID-19

(source:internet, reference only)


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