BRAIN FOG O “NIEBLA MENTAL” COMO MANIFESTACIÓN DE COVID 19 PROLONGADO Y SU IMPACTO EN LAS HABILIDADES COGNITIVAS EN PACIENTES DEL HOSPITAL IESS LOS CEIBOS.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, which causes the disease COVID-19, has affected nearly more than 10 million people around the world, resulting in massive hospitalizations requiring intensive care. Initially this virus mainly affected the lungs, however collateral damage has also been seen to other organs such as the central nervous system resulting in psychiatric and neurological disorders characterized by fatigue, myalgia, headaches, anosmia, cognitive instability, depression, and anxiety. These complications have been seen mostly in patients who required hospitalization; however, it is also common to see them in patients who were managed on an outpatient basis. The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of brain fog syndrome on cognitive abilities in adults diagnosed with COVID-19 using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for cognitive impairment. An observational, descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study was performed on 23 adult patients with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms who were given the MoCA test to determine the level of cognitive impairment. A higher vulnerability to cognitive impairment was observed in the female sex in the age group 71 to 80 years. The MoCA test showed that the older female population was more likely to present cognitive impairment as a symptom of prolonged COVID.