外刊阅读 | TIME | COVID-19 可能会对大脑留下持久的印记——尤其是对老年人

The CrowdStrike outage is a reminder that if we do not take seriously “our reliance on information technology,” ultimately the joke winds up being on us.

CrowdStrike的中断提醒我们，如果我们不认真对待“我们对信息技术的依赖”，最终这个笑话就会落在我们身上。

COVID-19 Can Leave a Lasting Mark on the Brain

—Especially for Older People

COVID-19 可能会对大脑留下持久的印记——尤其是对老年人

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COVID-19 no longer poses the urgent public-health threat it once did. But recent research points to a good reason to keep the virus in mind: it could leave a lasting stamp on yours. Studies suggest that COVID-19 is associated with possibly long-lasting changes to the brain, potentially contributing to cognitive problems like brain fog, mental fatigue, and memory loss, as well as neurological and mental-health issues. The virus seems able to damage blood vessels and support cells in the brain and may kickstart changes to the immune system that also affect brain function, says Dr. Wes Ely, co-director of the Center for Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

What does that mean for the average person as the virus once again circulates widely? Many people of all ages recover just fine, mentally and physically, after a COVID-19 case. But lingering cognitive effects are a real risk, particularly for older people, Ely says. Older adults are more likely to experience severe COVID-19, which has long been linked to a higher risk of long-term complications. And they may have had preexisting cognitive issues that become worse after infection.

The virus may also raise the chances of developing dementia for the first time, suggests a research review of 11 previous studies that was posted online in February before being peer-reviewed. Adults older than 60 who survived COVID-19 had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia a year later, compared to similar-aged people who hadn't had a respiratory infection. Cognitive impairment was almost twice as likely among people who'd had COVID-19 compared to an uninfected control group.

The study didn’t measure differences in individual participants' performance pre- and post-COVID, and the results don’t necessarily mean that every single person who catches COVID-19 will experience cognitive decline, Hampshire says. But, when looking at the study group as a whole, there were clear differences between those who’d had COVID-19 and those who hadn’t. The results equated to about a three-IQ-point deficit among people who recovered completely from COVID-19 versus those who'd never had it. Among people with unresolved Long COVID symptoms and those who’d been admitted to the ICU, the deficits jumped to six and nine IQ points, respectively.

But there are some reasons for optimism. In the study, cognitive differences were not as pronounced among people who’d gotten vaccinated multiple times, nor those who got COVID-19 later in the pandemic—which suggests risks may be lower now than they were in 2020.The researchers also didn’t find a dramatic difference between people who’d been infected once versus multiple times. (Other studies, however, have found that repeat infections carry compounding risks of brain complications, as well as other serious health problems.) And people who had Long COVID symptoms but eventually got better “performed at the same cognitive level as people who had shorter-duration symptoms,” which suggests some effects of Long COVID may be reversible, Hampshire says.

No one should dismiss reinfections as harmless. 

任何人都不应将再次感染视为无害。

Taken together, the studies suggest that changes in the virus, population immunity, and medical care are chipping away at the risk of Long COVID, but not eliminating it completely. 

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