Characterizing Long-term Cognitive and Emotional Impairment in Post-COVID-19 Sequelae

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

70 participants (above 18 years of age) will be recruited from the post-COVID recovery clinic at the Beilinson Hospital, in the Rabin Medical Center (RMC). Only patients previously diagnosed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and that had no neurological or psychiatric d...

70 participants (above 18 years of age) will be recruited from the post-COVID recovery clinic at the Beilinson Hospital, in the Rabin Medical Center (RMC). Only patients previously diagnosed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and that had no neurological or psychiatric disease prior to the COVID-19 episode, will be included. To avoid the risk of measuring adverse effects of lack of oxygen and/or artificial respiration procedures, COVID-19 patients who suffered from severe acute disease (according to World Health Organization criteria) will be excluded from participation. All potential participants will be given a detailed explanation about the research goals and procedure and they will all be asked to sign an institutional review board (IRB) consent form. Two groups, matched for age (5± years), will be examined: 35 case study patients: convalescents who report suffering from cognitive/emotional decline after recovering from COVID-19, and 35 control cases: convalescents with no cognitive/emotional complaints Participants will undergo: (1) An evaluation of COVID-19-related symptoms such as fatigue, post-exertional malaise, dizziness, etc. (2) A comprehensive evaluation of behavioral measures (e.g., hearing, vision, olfaction, sleep, social engagement) (3) A short validated neuropsychological evaluation, of multiple cognitive domains, with an emphasis on the memory domain; motivational factors will also be taken into account using performance validity tests (4) A thorough well-being and emotional state assessment, including the evaluation of mood disturbance and quality of life. The assessment will involve both self-report and cognitive tasks, previously associated with psychopathology. By recruiting a heterogeneous cohort in terms of symptom severity, the investigators will be able to test possible correlations between the emotional and cognitive impairments. In addition to the above-mentioned evaluations, a subgroup of participants will undergo either magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT), with the aim of clarifying the neural mechanisms underlying the neurologically-related symptoms.

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