Neuropsychological Consequences of COVID-19

Abstract

Background and aim: This presentation will provide an overview of the results from the “Monitoring of psychological health and neuropsychological functioning of COVID-19 survivors” (Research Council of Lithuanian, No. P-DNR-20-5) project. The study aims to explore long-term psychological, neurocognitive, and social consequences of COVID-19. Material and methods: A multi-stage applied study was implemented between May 2021 and November 2021 in Lithuania. People who were hospitalized because of COVID-19 as well as those who had only mild COVID-19 forms and were treated at home were assessed using a set of questionnaires complimented with telephone-based short neuropsychological testing. Special attention was given to health complaints, psychological well-being, and neurocognitive functioning. To investigate the broader social context in which recovery from COVID-19 takes place, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based sentiment analysis model for the Lithuanian language was created and used to analyze the prevailing attitudes in public media towards COVID-19 disease, health care workers, and COVID-19 survivors during the pandemic period. Results and conclusions: More than 1/3 of subjects after discharge from the hospital reported symptoms that lasted ≥ 5 weeks. Neurocognitive complaints were also prevalent. Almost 1/4 of the hospitalized COVID-19 survivors reported severe long-lasting problems with orientation, concentration, memory, and difficulties while performing cognitively challenging tasks. COVID-19 was also related to increased mental distress: 57.5% of COVID- 19 cases reported severe anxiety, 30% depressive symptoms and 39% increased irritability during acute COVID-19 phase. Media sentiment analysis revealed that while coronavirus keyword coverage was dominated by neutral framing (negative coverage of 16%), other COVID-19 related issues, such as health-care workers, sick people, or hospitals, were [...].