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Scientists warn of potential wave of COVID-linked brain damage

The world should brace itself for a possible wave of coronavirus-related brain damage leading to inflammatory diseases, psychosis and delirium, scientists warned Wednesday.

A new study from University College London described 43 cases of COVID-19 patients who suffered either temporary brain dysfunction, strokes, nerve damage or other serious brain effects — adding to the growing research linking the infectious illness to neurological damage.

“Given that the disease has only been around for a matter of months, we might not yet know what long-term damage COVID-19 can cause,” said Ross Paterson, who co-led the study published in the journal Brain.

“Doctors need to be aware of possible neurological effects, as early diagnosis can improve patient outcomes.”

Nine of the patients studied who had brain inflammation were also diagnosed with a rare condition called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) which is more usually seen in children and can be triggered by viral infections.

Researchers said they normally see one patient per month diagnosed with ADEM at their London clinic —  but that number spiked to at least one per week after the pandemic struck.

Neuroscientists say this new evidence is concerning.

“My worry is that we have millions of people with COVID-19 now. And if in a year’s time we have 10 million recovered people, and those people have cognitive deficits … then that’s going to affect their ability to work and their ability to go about activities of daily living,” Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at Western University in Canada, said.

Owen said the study shows the need for larger, more detailed collection of global data to learn how common the neurological and psychiatric complications are.

“This disease is affecting an enormous number of people,” Owen said. “That’s why it’s so important to collect this information now.”

The research adds to recent studies which also found COVID-19 can damage the brain.

“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,” said Michael Zandi, from UCL’s Institute of Neurology, who co-led the study.

With Post wires