This study aimed to assess whether COVID-19-related cognitive decline is a permanent deficit or if it improves over time. Cognitive performance was evaluated by means of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in COVID-19 survivors and non-infected individuals. All study participants had four cognitive evaluations, two of them before the pandemic and the other two, six and 18 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak infection in the village. Linear mixed effects models for longitudinal data were fitted to assess differences in cognitive performance across COVID-19 survivors and non-infected individuals. The study included 78 participants, 50 with history of mild COVID-19 and 28 without. There was a significant – likely age-related – decline in MoCA scores between the two pre-pandemic tests (β: -1.53; 95% C.I.: -2.14 to -0.92; p<0.001), which did not differ across individuals who later developed COVID-19 when compared to non-infected individuals. Six months after infection, only COVID-19 survivors had a significant decline in MoCA scores (β: -1.37; 95% C.I.: -2.14 to -0.61; p<0.001), which reversed after one additional year of follow-up (β: 0.66; 95% C.I.: -0.11 to 1.42; p=0.092). No differences were noticed among non-infected individuals when both post-pandemic MoCA scores were compared. The authors concluded that this study results suggest that long COVID-related cognitive decline may spontaneously improve over time.
Del Brutto OH, Rumbea DA, Recalde BY, Mera RM. Cognitive sequelae of long COVID may not be permanent. A prospective study. Eur J Neurol. 2021 Dec 16.
doi: 10.1111/ene.15215