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Those who had COVID-19 at higher risk for brain injuries a year later: Study

A study, published in Nature Medicine, looked at brain health using medical records from millions of U.S. veterans.
A discarded mask in Montreal. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Those who had COVID-19 are at a higher risk for a number of brain injuries a year later, according to a new study.

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It found that brain or neurological disorders occurred in 7% more people who had been infected with COVID than with a similar group of veterans who had never been inflected.

“The results show the devastating long-term effects of COVID-19,” senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, of Washington University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

The medical records of 154,000 U.S. veterans who had tested positive for COVID from March 1, 2020 to Jan. 15, 2021 were studied. Their records were compared with those of 5.6 million Americans who did not have COVID during that time frame, plus another 5.8 million people from the period just before COVID arrived in the U.S.

Memory issues, also known as brain fog, were the most common symptom. The study found that people infected with COVID had a 77% higher risk of developing memory problems.

Strokes caused by blood clots were also 50% more likely amongst those who had been infected, the study found. Seizures were 80% more likely and mental health issues were 43% more likely.