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Teacher: How does a boxer feel after being knocked out
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Memory loss, mood swings, and difficulty performing simple daily tasks.
More and more covid patients with mild symptoms testify that they have had a long-term effect on the brain.
– I’m afraid they’ll fall between the chairs, says Bengt Winblad, professor at the Karolinska Institutet.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Covid-19 was observed to affect the brains of patients admitted to the hospital. They were personality changes, confusion, and memory problems.
There are now reports that covid patients with milder symptoms also suffer from brain damage. These are brain fatigue, memory problems, difficulty performing simple daily tasks, and personality changes.
“How to get knocked out”
Other symptoms include sensitivity to sound and light, headaches, and mood swings. Symptoms you usually associate with those you have after a concussion or MS disease, myalgic encephalomyelitis.
– I can imagine that this is how a boxer feels after being knocked out, this is a sign of a moderate brain injury, says Bengt Winblad, professor at the Karolinska Institutet, who warned early on about brain injuries in covid patients.
Photo: NAINA HELEN W. JÅMA
Bengt Winblad, professor at the Karolinska Institutet.
Researcher: May be brain injury
No one knows for sure why this is due. An explanation may be a general tiredness, fatigue, after virus infection. But it can also be damage to the brain after brain inflammation, caused by the virus directly infecting nerve cells or by over-activating the immune system.
This has been observed in severely ill covid patients. Michael Axenhus, a physician and neuroscience researcher with a focus on cognition at Karolinska Institutet, believes that even people with mild symptoms can be affected.
– Even patients with symptoms after mild illness are likely to have had brain swelling that was not noticed.
The severity of the disease that is put into the infection phase does not seem to determine if the problems that occur afterwards are serious or how serious.
– It’s worrying. I think we will see many seeking care for different types of cognitive problems, which does not link it to the fact that they had mild covid, says Michael Axenhus.
– It is important for people to know that they can have these symptoms without having been seriously ill so that they receive the appropriate help from care.
Anxiety: May fall between chairs.
Investigating these patients will require large healthcare resources, from several different areas, the researchers say. Neurologists, psychiatrists and geriatricians.
Today, there are special clinics for covid patients in Norrköping and Stockholm. Bengt Winblad believes that all regions should follow the same path.
– Everyone should get a proper investigation. I fear they will fall between the chairs otherwise. We know very little about your problems and it is easy for healthcare to lose interest in them.
How long brain fatigue lasts after covid-19, only time will tell, according to Michael Axenhus.
– General “physical” fatigue after the sick period usually recovers, but neurological problems can last from a few days to several months and can cause chronic problems.
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