Study links increase in delirium, rare brain inflammation and stroke to COVID-19

Neurological complications of COVID-19 can include delirium (abrupt change in the brain that causes mental confusion and emotional disruption), brain inflammation, stroke, and nerve damage, a new study has revealed.

The study led by the research team at University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) was published in the journal Brain.

It identified one rare and sometimes fatal inflammatory condition, known as ADEM, which appears to be increasing in prevalence due to the pandemic.

Some patients in the study did not experience severe respiratory symptoms, and the neurological disorder was the first and main presentation of COVID-19.

The virus causing COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, was not detected in the cerebrospinal brain fluid of any of the patients tested, suggesting the virus did not directly attack the brain to cause the neurological illness.

Further research is needed to identify why patients were developing these complications.

In some patients, the researchers found evidence that the brain inflammation was likely caused by an immune response to the disease, suggesting that some neurological complications of COVID-19 might come from the immune response rather than the virus itself.