Neurocognitive Disorders in Post and Long Covid Patients: Preliminary Data, Gender Differences and New Diabetes Diagnosis

Abstract

The research is based on a clinical observation of the neurological and neuro-cognitive status of 300 patients, belonging to the Partinico Hospital and the Post-Long Covid clinic, which had contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the period between April 2021 and May 2022. In this paper, we present the analysis of the first 100 patients subjected to a neurocognitive screening protocol. The procedure consists of tests that examine the mechanism of different brain domains to check for the presence of cognitive deficits that arose after the negativization of the viral infection. Through a neurocognitive protocol, the research aims to investigate different brain areas and mental functioning. This allowed us to raise the possibility that the presence of cognitive alterations may be related to the evidence of point-like brain alterations (from the cortex to the trunk) visible through neuroimaging techniques. In the article, we highlight the hypothesis that SARS-covid 2, as stated in recently published studies, can produce an alteration of executive functions such as to configure a real dysexecutive syndrome. This research evaluates the symptomatic gender variability within the sample, the presence of important differences in the affective state, and provides a first observation of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in diabetic pathology as well.