Persistent, new-onset symptoms and mental health complaints in Long COVID in a Brazilian cohort of non-hospitalized patients

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 133
• Main Authors: Titze-de-Almeida, Ricardo, da Cunha, Thaylise Ramalho, Dos Santos Silva, Letícia Dias, Ferreira, Clarisse Santos, Silva, Caroline Pena, Ribeiro, Adriana Pinheiro, de Castro Moreira Santos Júnior, Agenor, de Paula Brandão, Pedro Renato, Silva, Andrezza Paula Brito, da Rocha, Márcia Cristina Oliveira, Xavier, Mary-Ann Elvina, Titze-de-Almeida, Simoneide Souza, Shimizu, Helena Eri, Delgado-Rodrigues, Raimundo Nonato
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 08.02.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Body mass index; Brazil; Brazil - epidemiology; Care and treatment; Complaints; Complications; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - complications; COVID-19 - psychology; Depression; Depression, Mental; Diagnosis; Disease transmission; Dyspnea; Fatigue; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Long COVID; Memory; Mental depression; Mental Health; Myalgia; Olfaction disorders; Overweight; Patients; Polymerase chain reaction; Reverse transcription; Risk factors; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Signs and symptoms; Sleep; Sleep disorders; Standard deviation; Structured Query Language-SQL; Taste disorders; Viral diseases; Brazil; COVID-19; Brazil; Depression; Sleep; Long COVID; Memory
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-022-07065-3

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections lead to acute- and chronic Long COVID (LC) symptoms. However, few studies have addressed LC sequelae on brain functions. This study was aimed to examine if acute symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would persist during LC, and if memory problems would be correlated with sleep, depressive mood, or anxious complaints. Our work followed a cohort of 236 patients from two public hospitals of the Federal District in mid-western Brazil. Patients' interviews checked for clinical symptoms during acute and LC (5-8 months after real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, RT-qPCR). Most cases were non-hospitalized individuals (86.3%) with a median age of 41.2 years. While myalgia (50%), hyposmia (48.3%), and dysgeusia (45.8%) were prevalent symptoms in acute phase, fatigue (21.6%) followed by headache (19.1%) and myalgia (16.1%) commonly occurred during LC. In LC, 39.8% of individuals reported memory complaints, 36.9% felt anxious, 44.9% felt depressed, and 45.8% had sleep problems. Furthermore, memory complaints were associated with sleep problems (adjusted OR 3.206; 95% CI 1.723-6.030) and depressive feelings (adjusted OR 3.981; 95% CI 2.068-7.815). The SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to persistent symptoms during LC, in which memory problems may be associated with sleep and depressive complaints.