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Limited evidence for neuropsychological dysfunction in patients initially affected by severe COVID-19
Konstantinos Priftis1,2, Valeria Velardo3, Matteo Giuseppe Felice Vascello3
1Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, Padua, Italy. konstantinos.priftis@unipd.it.
Background:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulting in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has caused a pandemic. There is now considerable evidence that neuropsychological functions could be affected. We further tested this hypothesis on a sample of post COVID-19 patients, who, initially, had been severely affected.
Methods:
We tested 22 post COVID-19 patients who, after the intensive care unit (all but one), were admitted to our rehabilitation unit to be treated for severe post COVID-19 sequelae. All patients were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery including measures assessing perceptual, attentive, mnestic, linguistic, and executive functions, and overall cognitive status. The patients were also administered rehabilitation measures including scales for investigating aerobic capacity/endurance deficits, dyspnea, and fatigue.
Results:
Our findings revealed that evidence of neuropsychological disorders in post COVID-19 patients was very limited. Furthermore, COVID-19 severity and other relevant variables were not correlated with patients' scores on the neuropsychological tests.
Conclusions:
We suggest that the relation between COVID-19 and neuropsychological disorders is unclear. New studies and metanalyses are highly required to shed light on this highly complex issue.
