Research by San Raffaele in Milan confirmed the link between high levels of inflammation during the coronavirus and the emergence of symptoms and brain alterations months after recovery (even in those who have never suffered from it before)
A link that has long been suspected, the one between Covid disease and states of depression or anxiety which can arise even after months and are part of the sequelae that the virus can leave. one of the manifestations of the
Long Covid
recently investigated by the researchers of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.
The results of the study
Using integrated magnetic resonance approaches, the San Raffaele research group in Clinical Psychiatry and Psychobiology, led by Francesco Benedetti, a psychiatrist and associate professor at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, found that more serious patients, those with higher levels of systemic inflammation are at greater risk suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) after healing. Clinical symptoms were evaluated and found in association with an alteration in functional connectivity and in the volume and microstructure of gray and white matter. The study, published in the scientific journal Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health, confirms the risk factor represented by serious infections – and related inflammatory responses – in the onset of anxiety and mood disorders and emphasizes the importance of avoiding the encounter with SARS-CoV-2 even not falling into the risk categories.
Patients evaluated
The 42 patients covered by the study were hospitalized at the San Raffale Hospital for Covid-19 pneumonia during the second wave of the pandemic – since the fall of 2020 – and have been followed for at least three months after discharge, in the clinic dedicated to follow-up at the San Raffaele-Turro office. The average age of the subjects – of which two thirds are men – 54 years. None of them had ever suffered from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder prior to infection, n had suffered from brain injury during the acute phase of pneumonia. In the 42 hospitalized patients, the IBS was measured, the so-called systemic index of inflammation, which assesses the intensity of the inflammatory reaction produced by the body to fight the infection by taking blood. In the months following discharge for, in addition to the psychiatric evaluation – through standardized tests – the researchers were also able to examine the functional connectivity, the structure of the white matter and the local volume of the gray matter.
The fog in the brain
The emergence of depressive symptoms in patients who survive the hyper-inflammatory forms of Covid-19 should not be underestimated, explains Professor Francesco Benedetti. a condition whose duration will have to be verified over time, and which could also explain the cognitive problems which usually accompany the post infection syndrome known as Long Covid. It is known that serious infections – such as those from influenza or viral pneumonia – may precede episodes of major depression. The causal mechanism behind this trigger is still unclear, but the suspect number one is the immune system and in particular the inflammatory response. Severe forms of Covid-19 can have long-term consequences also from a psychiatric point of view. One more reason to get vaccinated, Benedetti concludes, also because one of the main UK surveillance studies has shown that, after two doses of the vaccine, the chances of suffering from Long Covid have decreased by 50%.
November 11, 2021 (change November 11, 2021 | 12:34)
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