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Review
. 2024 Feb 9:18:e20230076.
doi: 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2023-0076. eCollection 2024.

Long COVID: neurological manifestations - an updated narrative review

José Wagner Leonel  1 , Gabriella Cunha Vieira Ciurleo  1 , Alissa Moura Formiga  1 , Thais de Maria Frota Vasconcelos  1 , Marcello Holanda de Andrade  1 , Werbety Lucas Queiroz Feitosa  1 , Antônio Alves Sobreira-Neto  1 , Chiara Gübel Portugal  1 , Lorenzo Marinho Morais  1 , Samuel Cavalcante Marinho  1 , Emanuel de Assis Bertulino Martins Gomes  1 , Esther de Alencar Araripe Falcão Feitosa  1 , Emmanuelle Silva Tavares Sobreira  1 , Reinaldo Barreto Oriá  1 , Manoel Alves Sobreira-Neto  1 , Pedro Braga-Neto  1
Affiliations
Review

Long COVID: neurological manifestations - an updated narrative review

José Wagner Leonel et al. Dement Neuropsychol. .

Abstract
in English, Portuguese

Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus can lead to neurological symptoms in the acute phase and in the Long COVID phase. These symptoms usually involve cognition, sleep, smell disorders, psychiatric manifestations, headache and others. This condition is more commonly described in young adults and women. This symptomatology can follow severe or mild cases of the disease. The importance of this issue resides in the high prevalence of neurological symptoms in the Long COVID phase, which entails significant morbidity in this population. In addition, such a condition is associated with high health care costs, with some estimates hovering around 3.7 trillion US dollars. In this review, we will sequentially describe the current knowledge about the most prevalent neurological symptoms in Long COVID, as well as their pathophysiology and possible biomarkers.

A infecção pelo vírus SARS-CoV-2 pode levar a sintomas neurológicos na fase aguda e na fase de COVID longa. Esses sintomas geralmente envolvem cognição, sono, distúrbios do olfato, manifestações psiquiátricas, dor de cabeça e outros. Esta condição é mais comumente descrita em adultos jovens e mulheres. A sintomatologia pode acompanhar casos graves ou leves da doença. A importância desta questão reside na elevada prevalência de sintomas neurológicos na fase de COVID longa, o que acarreta morbilidade significativa nesta população. Além disso, tal condição está associada a elevados custos de cuidados de saúde, com algumas estimativas em torno de 3,7 trilhões de dólares americanos. Nesta revisão, descrevemos sequencialmente o conhecimento atual sobre os sintomas neurológicos mais prevalentes na COVID longa, bem como sua fisiopatologia e possíveis biomarcadores.

Keywords: Cognition; Cognitive Dysfunction; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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