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THURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Patients with severe COVID-19<\/a> may be at risk for a variety of brain complications — from stroke<\/a> to psychosis, new research suggests.<\/p>\n “There have been growing reports of an association between COVID-19<\/a> infection and possible neurological or psychiatric complications, but until now these have typically been limited to studies of 10 patients or fewer,” said lead study author Benedict Michael. He is a fellow in the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n The study, described as the first nationwide look at neurological complications of infection with the new coronavirus, looked at 125 COVID-19<\/a> patients treated in U.K. hospitals during April. Michael emphasized that it focused only on cases that were serious enough to require hospitalization.<\/p>\n The most common brain complication was stroke<\/a>, which occurred in 77 patients.<\/p>\n Of those strokes<\/a>, 57 were caused by a blood clot<\/a> in the brain, nine by bleeding in the brain and one by inflammation in the blood vessels of the brain. Most of the patients who had a stroke<\/a> were older than 60 years of age.<\/p>\n Thirty-nine patients experienced confusion<\/a> or behavior changes that suggested they had an altered mental state, the study found.<\/p>\n Of those, nine had unspecified brain dysfunction (encephalopathy<\/a>), seven had inflammation of the brain (encephalitis<\/a>), and 23 were diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Ninety-two percent of the psychiatric diagnoses were believed to be new. Ten patients had a new-onset psychosis; six had dementia<\/a>-like conditions; and seven had signs of a mood disorder, including depression<\/a> and anxiety<\/a>, the study found.<\/p>\n Age information was available for 37 of the 39 patients with an altered mental state. Forty-nine percent were younger than 60, according to the study published June 25 in The Lancet Psychiatry<\/i> journal.<\/p>\n The findings could help guide future research into the neurological complications of COVID-19<\/a> and may lead to treatments, the study authors said in a journal news release.<\/p>\n According to study co-author Sarah Pett, a lecturer in infectious diseases at University College London, “This data represents an important snapshot of the brain-related complications of COVID-19<\/a> in hospitalized patients. It is critically important that we continue to collect this information to really understand this virus fully.”<\/p>\n Pett said researchers also need to understand brain complications in COVID-19<\/a> patients who aren’t sick enough to be hospitalized.<\/p>\n “Our study provides the foundations for larger, hospital and community-based studies,” she said. “These studies will help inform on the frequency of these brain complications, who’s most at risk of getting them, and ultimately how best to treat.”<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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