Browsing by Subject "Itseraportoidut oireet"

Objective: The coronavirus disease COVID-19 causes neuropsychological problems to a proportion of patients having contracted the illness in the months following the illness and on a more long-term basis. Currently there is little knowledge about how the required level of care in the acute phase affects the presence of symptoms and their change over time. The objective of this study was to investigate the neuropsychological effects of COVID-19 from a patient self-reported symptoms and cognitive screening perspective. The study examines the effects of the required level of care in the acute phase and time since contracting the illness on self-reported symptoms and cognitive screening results three and six months after the acute phase. Furthermore, the aim was to illustrate the relationship between these two assessments. Methods: The data was collected within the RECOVID-20 project (Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District and University of Helsinki). Subjects (N = 164, of which 96 women, mean age 54.1 years) contracted COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. The data was collected from three different levels of care as required by the acute phase: intensive care unit patients, regular inpatient wards and patients who were ill at home. Self-reported symptoms were assessed with the A-B Neuropsychological Assessment Schedule and cognitive performance was measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Blind screening tool three and six months after the acute phase. Group differences and change over time was analysed using multivariate variance analyses and linear mixed models. Results and conclusions: About a third of all patients reported neuropsychological symptoms regardless of the level of care required in the acute phase both three and six months after the acute phase. Symptoms consisted mainly of fatigue, slowing and concentration problems. In the cognitive screening patients having received ICU and inpatient ward care performed worse compared to patients having been ill at home, but a statistically significant result was not detected when controlling for age. A statistically significant relationship between self-reported symptoms and cognitive performance was observed only in ICU patients at three months. Although the majority of COVID-19 patients do not have significant symptoms after the acute phase, there are patients that show preliminary signs of more chronic symptoms based on both self-reported symptoms and cognitive screening. More research is needed to investigate the causes of these symptoms.