Title : The impact of vaccination on cognitive symptoms in long covid
Abstract:
The high numbers of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases across the world have resulted in a high prevalence of individuals suffering from chronic and often debilitating symptoms, also known as ‘long COVID’. Currently there is still a significant lack of understanding about the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of this highly heterogeneous condition, although several hypotheses have been proposed. Investigating the impact of vaccination on long COVID symptoms has important relevance when considering the scale of the affected population and the lack of treatments currently available. Studies so far, whilst limited, suggest that vaccination responses are mixed, with some individuals showing evidence of either improvement, worsening, or no change in long COVID symptoms. This study used baseline and follow-up data from the COVID and Cognition study cohort, also known as the ‘COVCOG’ study (Guo et al., 2022a; 2022b) and aimed to investigate the impact of vaccination on cognitive symptoms in individuals who self-identified as having had long COVID. Initial comparison of pre- and post-vaccination cognitive symptoms matched the findings of similar studies, with individuals showing mixed responses including improvement, worsening or no change. However, exploratory findings seemed to suggest that cognitive symptoms in long COVID show mixed trajectories over time, regardless of whether individuals are vaccinated or not.
