People who get infected with COVID-19 are at risk of developing dementia, psychosis and brain fog two years after infection, according to a major UK study.
Researchers at the University of Oxford analysed electronic health records of 1.25 million people diagnosed with COVID-19 and a matched control group consisting of an equal number of patients who had other respiratory infections.
The most significant finding by researchers was a cognitive deficit, otherwise known as brain fog, which increased for people aged between 18 and 64.
It showed it affected 6.4 percent of people who had COVID-19 in the previous two years and 5.5. percent of those in the control group.
"The results have important implications for patients and health services as they suggest that new cases of neurological conditions linked to COVID infection are likely to occur for a considerable time after the pandemic has subsided," said Paul Harrison, senior author of the study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
It also provided some alarming results for children who had been diagnosed with the virus.
Children were 2.6 percent more likely to develop epilepsy or seizures after being diagnosed with COVID-19, while 1.3 percent after another respiratory infection, according to Max Taquet, who led the analysis.
"Children are at three-fold increased risk of psychotic disorder, even though this is rare - 18 in 10,000 in the two years after COVID," Taquet said.
But Taquet said it wasn't all bad news, with the study showing the impact of COVID-19 was sometimes brief.
"Excess risks of depression and anxiety after COVID disappear within two to three months, with no overall excess of cases over the two years," Taquet said.
The study also found people aged over 65 years old had a 4.5 percent chance of developing dementia over the next two years after testing positive for COVID-19.
For psychotic disorders, the figures were 0.85 percent in COVID-19 patients and 0.6 percent in controls.
