For years the question has been asked: Is Covid-19 making you stupid? Many people with the virus have reported a feeling of brain fatigue, a marked cognitive decline, which is summed up by English speakers. “brain fog”, or “brain fog.”
A long-term study confirms and definitively substantiates this feeling scientifically observed since the beginning of the epidemic in March 2020. Covid, even in its least severe forms, can cause a loss of three to six intelligence quotient (IQ) points during about one. After years of contamination, the New Atlas tells us.
“The potential long-term effects of Covid-19 on cognitive function are a concern for people, healthcare professionals and policy makers. But until now, they have been difficult to measure objectively in large population samples.Adam Hampshire, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London and lead author of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, explains.
Hampshire and his team have conducted the largest and longest study on Covid in the world. Launched in April 2020, it follows nearly 3 million people in England to better study and understand the long-term symptoms of the virus.
Minus six points for Gryffindor
Called “REACT” for “Real-Time Assessment of Community Transmission” (which can be translated into French as “Real-Time Assessment of Community Transmission”), the study focused on 112,000 people and the various cognitive events they may have experienced. . Between 3% and 4% of this group suffer from what is known as “long covid”, in which symptoms persist for more than twelve weeks. Most of these patients claim to be suffering from certain effects even a year after the contamination.
The researchers quantified this: That would be a drop of about six IQ points, particularly in the areas of memory, planning or verbal reasoning. The faster affected people recovered, the less severely affected they were by these cognitive deficits.
“Although cognitive deficits after Covid-19 are relatively low on average, a significant minority have significant deficits that are likely to affect their ability to work and function.Maxim Tacquet, a psychiatrist at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the new study, said. Given the scale of the epidemic and the number of people affected, this is particularly worrying. “
If you’re tired, having trouble finding certain words, or being told you’re stupid by loved ones, blame it on Covid and talk to your doctor.
