Coronavirus Can Cause Anxiety, Brain Damage Say New Study

Researchers in two separate studies have found that the coronavirus can cause psychological and neurological problems.

(Representational Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Anxiety and a depressed mood is now the latest in the ever-increasing list of symptoms and effects of COVID-19. According to a report IANS a new study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal The Laryngoscope says that there is evidence that the coronavirus attacks the central nervous system leading to these psychological issues and other symptoms such as loss of smell and taste. The study is based on the cross-sectional telephone questionnaire involving 114 Covid 19 patients over a six-week period at Kantonsspital Aarau in Aarau, Switzerland. When the patients participated in the study , 47.4 percent had reported several days of depressed mood per week while 21.1 per cent reported depressed mood nearly every day. "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," saidresearcher Ahmad Sedaghat from the University of Cincinnati in the US in the report. The researchers also feel that the virus might be using the olfactory tract to enter the central nervous system. "These symptoms of psychological distress, such as depressed mood and anxiety are central nervous system symptoms if they are associated only with how diminished is your sense of smell. This may indicate that the virus is infecting olfactory neurons, decreasing the sense of smell, and then using the olfactory tract to enter the central nervous symptom," said Sedaghat as is, but now brain damage has been added to the list. A study conducted in the UK suggests that COVID-19 might be causing neurological disorders. Neurologists of University College London(UCL)  found an inflammatory disease called, acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis (ADEM) in nine patients. This disease causes damage to the central nervous systems affecting the nerves of the brain and spinal cord. Coronavirus and brain damage The recent study comes after Neurologists of University College London(UCL)  suggested that COVID-19 might be causing neurological disorders. According to a UCL press release, the joint senior author Dr Michael Zandi of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, “We identified a higher than expected number of people with neurological conditions such as brain inflammation, which did not always correlate with the severity of respiratory symptoms.” He also added, “We should be vigilant and look out for these complications in people who have had Covid-19. Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic – perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic – remains to be seen.” In the study the neurological symptoms of 43 people (aged 16-85) who were either confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 were looked at. The researchers found 10 cases of “transient encephalopathies (temporary brain dysfunction) with delirium”, this also corresponds with other studies which found evidence of delirium with agitation. 12 cases of brain inflammation, eight cases of strokes, and eight others with nerve damage, mainly Guillain-Barré syndrome which occurs after a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection. Out of the 12 cases of brain inflammation conditions nine were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). According to the press release “ADEM is rare and typically seen in children and can be triggered by viral infections: the team in London normally sees about one adult patient with ADEM per month, but that increased to at least one per week during the study period, which the researchers say is a concerning increase.” The British neurologists say that if there are subtle damages to the brain, these will only become apparent after few years. But now, that this study has been conducted, medical researchers around the world can look for similar neurological disorders which will help better understand this virus and come up with the best possible treatment.