It might sound counterintuitive, but new research shows that when long COVID strikes, younger patients appear more prone to severe symptoms than older folks.
That's tough on society as a whole, the study's lead author said.
"The impact of Long COVID is causing disproportionate morbidity [illness] and disability in younger adults in their prime who provide much of the workforce, productivity and innovation in our society," said Dr. Igor Koralnik. He co-directs the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center, in Chicago.
According to the researchers, neurological symptoms of long COVID can include headache, numbness and tingling, problems with smell and taste, blurred vision, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue and a decrease in cognitive function.
"While deaths from COVID-19 continue to decrease, people still get repetitive infections with the virus and may develop Long COVID along the way," said Koralnik, who is also chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine.
"Long COVID is causing an alteration in patients' quality of life," he said. "Despite vaccinations and boosters, about 30 percent of COVID patients develop some Long COVID symptoms."
The new study was published Nov. 22 in the Annals of Neurology. It involved the first 1,300 patients diagnosed with long COVID and cared for at the Northwestern COVID clinic.
As the researchers noted, only 200 of those patients had initial COVID-19 symptoms so severe (for example, pneumonia) that they required hospitalization.
Researchers tracked patient outcomes for an average of 10 months after the onset of their initial bout with COVID.
They found that the neurological symptoms of people with long COVID tended to be more pronounced if they were under 65, compared to those experienced by older individuals.
An array of neurological symptoms often occurred, regardless of how severe the patient's initial case of COVID-19 had been, the Chicago team added.
"This study highlights the importance that people of all ages suffering from Long COVID should be provided with the necessary treatment and rehabilitation services to alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life," Koralnik said in a Northwestern news release.