Neuropsychiatric symptoms persist in COVID-19 survivors

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in COVID-19 survivors, a large new analysis confirms. Researchers pooled data from 51 studies involving a total of nearly 19,000 patients who were tracked for up to six months.

The average follow-up was 77 days post-diagnosis. Overall, 27.4% reported sleep problems, 24.4% had fatigue, 20.2% scored poorly on objective tests of cognition, 19.1% reported anxiety, and 15.7% had post-traumatic stress.

Nerve disturbances and dizziness or vertigo were less common but were seen in “a non-negligible proportion” of patients, the research team reported on Tuesday in a paper posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

Only about 7% of the patients were said to have required intensive care, based on this meta-analysis in which some papers were not clear on intensive care figures.

“There was little or no evidence of differential symptom prevalence based on hospitalization status, severity, or follow-up duration,” the researchers said.

They caution that some of the patients may still have been in the acute phase of their infections, and longer follow-up will be necessary to know how long these problems persist, and whether they are effects of viral infection in general or are specific to the new coronavirus.