Altuna, M, Sánchez-Saudinós, Mª B, Lleó, A · Neurology perspectives · 2021 · DOI
COVID-19 can cause cognitive problems—such as difficulty thinking, concentrating, or remembering—that sometimes last for months after infection. These cognitive symptoms can happen even in people with mild COVID cases, which is unusual compared to other viral illnesses. This review found that cognitive problems after COVID share similarities with symptoms seen in ME/CFS and can significantly affect daily life and quality of life.
This review is significant for ME/CFS research because it documents striking parallels between post-COVID cognitive impairment and ME/CFS cognitive symptoms, including shared affective (mood) features and functional impact. Understanding these similarities may help identify common neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction in both conditions and inform treatment development.
This narrative review does not establish causal mechanisms for post-COVID cognitive impairment or prove that post-COVID cognitive syndrome is identical to ME/CFS. The comparison is descriptive rather than mechanistic, and the review does not determine whether similar presentations reflect shared underlying pathophysiology or coincidental symptom overlap.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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