It’s more than four years since the first cases of covid-19 were identified — but many of its longer-term effects, including for those living with long covid, remain unclear.
Now, a new study has some worrying findings that suggest covid may have longer-term effects on cognition and memory — and that these lead to measurable differences in cognitive performance.
The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that participants who recovered from covid symptoms had a cognitive deficit equivalent to three IQ points compared with those who were never infected, while participants suffering from unresolved covid symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more experienced a loss equivalent to six IQ points.
But researchers also stressed that the greater cognitive decline associated with persistent symptoms may not be permanent, as participants in this category who had recovered by the time they took part in the study were found to have cognitive deficits comparable to those who recovered quickly. Adam Hampshire, the study’s lead author and a professor in restorative neurosciences at Imperial College London, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the improvement for those who previously had longer-term symptoms “gives us a little bit of hope that those who are struggling with long covid at the moment — when their symptoms eventually resolve — may experience some cognitive recovery.”