Results showed a relatively high rate of cognitive impairment 7.6 months after patients had contracted the disease.
The most common cognitive deficit — affecting nearly in 1 in 4 patients — was a problem with storing new memories, followed by issues with memory recall.While hospitalized patients were more likely to have cognitive impairments, patients who were only treated in the emergency department also had developed thinking problems.At Northwestern Medical Center, some Covid patients ended up with such severe cognitive deficits that they could not care for themselves after being discharged, neurologist Dr.
“This study confirms what we have also seen at Northwestern, that cognitive problems are persistent both in patients who were previously hospitalized and also in patients who had only mild respiratory symptoms,” Koralnik said.While cognitive issues are not surprising to find in those who were so sick they were put on ventilators in the hospital, it's not clear why young patients who had a mild illness would be affected, he added.Because even younger patients who had a mild case of the disease reported cognitive difficulties, Becker recommended post-Covid screening for mental impairment as a standard of care, regardless of age of the patient.