COVID-19 positive outpatients are at a far increased risk of neurodegenerative disorders compared with individuals who tested negative for the virus, a new study presented today at the 8th European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress has shown. The research study, which analyzed the health record
Researchers found that people who tested positive for COVID-19 had a 4.8 times increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage , 3.5 times increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, 2.6 times increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, and 2.7 times increased risk of ischaemic stroke.
Dr. Pardis Zarifkar, lead author from the Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, explained, “More than two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the precise nature and evolution of the effects of COVID-19 on neurological disorders remained uncharacterized.
The frequency of other neurodegenerative illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, myasthenia gravis, and narcolepsy did not increase after COVID-19, influenza, or pneumonia.