Persistent, new‑onset symptoms and mental health complaints in Long COVID in a Brazilian cohort of non‑hospitalized patients

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Ricardo Titze de
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Cunha, Thaylise Ramalho da, Silva, Letícia Dias dos Santos, Ferreira, Clarisse Santos, Silva, Caroline Pena, Ribeiro, Adriana Pinheiro, Santos Júnior, Agenor de Castro Moreira, Brandão, Pedro Renato de Paula, Silva, Andrezza Paula Brito, Rocha, Márcia Cristina Oliveira da, Xavier, Mary‑Ann Elvina, Almeida, Simoneide Souza Titze de, Shimizu, Helena Eri, Rodrigues, Raimundo Nonato Delgado
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UnB
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio2.unb.br/jspui/handle/10482/48547; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07065-3; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5019-4742
• topic: Memória - aspectos fisiológicos; Depressão mental; Sono - qualidade; Saúde mental; Covid-19

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections lead to acute- and chronic Long COVID (LC) symptoms. However, few studies have addressed LC sequelae on brain functions. This study was aimed to examine if acute symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would persist during LC, and if memory problems would be correlated with sleep, depressive mood, or anxious complaints. Methods: Our work followed a cohort of 236 patients from two public hospitals of the Federal District in mid-west‑ern Brazil. Patients’ interviews checked for clinical symptoms during acute and LC (5–8 months after real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, RT-qPCR). Results: Most cases were non-hospitalized individuals (86.3%) with a median age of 41.2 years. While myalgia (50%), hyposmia (48.3%), and dysgeusia (45.8%) were prevalent symptoms in acute phase, fatigue (21.6%) followed by headache (19.1%) and myalgia (16.1%) commonly occurred during LC. In LC, 39.8% of individuals reported memory complaints, 36.9% felt anxious, 44.9% felt depressed, and 45.8% had sleep problems. Furthermore, memory complaints were associated with sleep problems (adjusted OR 3.206; 95% CI 1.723–6.030) and depressive feelings (adjusted OR 3.981; 95% CI 2.068–7.815). Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to persistent symptoms during LC, in which memory problems may be associated with sleep and depressive complaints.