The clinical data of 701 patients hospitalized between March and August 2020 have been analyzed
A study has found a link between loss of smell or taste after passing covid-19 with memory problems. This has been published in the scientific journal European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.
Some studies conducted before the pandemic showed that loss of smell could be an early sign of the impending onset of Alzheimer’s.
There is evidence that this sensory disorder can appear years before the first cognitive symptoms, which suggests a link between the brain regions responsible for memory and the interpretation of olfactory stimuli.
In the study, Brazilian researchers analyzed clinical data from 701 patients treated for moderate or severe covid-19 at the Hospital das Clínicas between March and August 2020. These patients spent an average of 17.6 days in the hospital. Their mean age was 55.3 years and more than half (52.4%) were men. A slightly higher proportion (56.4%) required intensive care due to complications of the disease, and 37.4% were intubated.
20% of covid patients suffered moderate or severe taste deficit, followed by moderate or severe olfactory deficit (18%), moderate or severe deficit in both smell and taste (11%), and parosmia (9%). , when a previously enjoyed smell becomes unpleasant.
Evaluations carried out six months after hospital discharge showed that patients with the most severe smell and taste disorders after covid-19 obtained the worst results in cognitive tests, especially when these involved memory.
Subjects reporting parosmia were found to have more memory problems than others, while those with moderate or severe taste deficits performed significantly worse on a test used to assess episodic memory and attention. Subjects who reported moderate or severe loss of both smell and taste were also found to have significantly impaired episodic memory.
This finding corroborates the hypothesis that “covid affects cognition, and that the damage in this area does not only have psychosocial or environmental causes,” details Rodolfo Damiano, first author of the article.