| Poster | Poster Session 09 Program Schedule
02/16/2024
03:30 pm - 04:45 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 09: Epilepsy | Oncology | MS | Infectious Disease
Final Abstract #39
The COGVID Study Part II: Investigating Cognitive Complaints in Outpatients with Long COVID
Eva Foged, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, Denmark
Kristoffer Petterson, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, Denmark
Jeff Petersen, Copenhagen Affective Disorder Research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Birgitte Fagerlund, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Center, Copenhagen University Hospital – Mental Health Services CPH and Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark
Category: Infectious Disease (HIV/COVID/Hepatitis/Viruses)
Keyword 1: cognitive functioning
Keyword 2: memory complaints
Keyword 3: neuropsychological assessment
Objective:
Since the worldwide spread of COVID-19 in the pandemic of 2020, reports of long-term cognitive sequelae in both mild and severe COVID-19 cases have emerged in the scientific literature. However, many reports rely on subjective cognitive complaints, rather than objective testing, due to lockdown and social distancing, which made it difficult to test patients in person.
The aim of the COGVID Study was to investigate the prevalence, profile, duration, and predictors of cognitive sequelae after COVID-19 in adult Danish patients with long-term cognitive complaints (≥ 3 months post infection).
Participants and Methods:
A total of 186 patients aged 18-76 years were recruited from an outpatient neurological clinic at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), to which they had been referred by their general practitioner following cognitive complaints ≥ 3 months after COVID-19 infection. Data were collected from May 2021-February 2022 and included neuropsychological testing of memory, attention, concentration, psychomotor speed, digit span, and executive functions, as well as the COBRA questionnaire of subjective cognitive complaints.
Results:
The group had an average of 2 test performances that were 1.5 SD below the mean in neuropsychological testing, particularly on tests of psychomotor speed, attention span and sustained attention. Hospitalized patients performed significantly worse than non-hospitalized patients on tests of psychomotor speed, sustained attention, concentration, learning and memory, and executive functioning. Scores in the COBRA questionnaire of subjective cognitive complaints were high using a cut-off score of 17 points.
Conclusions:
Cognitive complaints after COVID-19 infection were common and extensive in this population. The hospitalized patients performed worse on neuropsychological tests than non-hospitalized patients, which points to an increased burden of cognitive difficulties and a more extensive need of cognitive rehabilitation in more severe cases of COVID-19. The non-hospitalized group also showed signs of some degree of cognitive dysfunction in neuropsychological testing, which indicates that even patients with relatively mild COVID-19 requiring no hospitalization may profit from counselling on cognitive strategies. Other factors, e.g. psychosocial issues, pain, or fatigue, that may contribute to subjective cognitive complaints, should also be considered and included in intervention strategies.
|
|---|
