Six-month follow-up of multidomain cognitive impairment in non-hospitalized individuals with post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Abstract

Some people infected with SARS-CoV-2 report persisting symptoms following acute infection. If these persist for over three months, they are classified as post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS). Although PCS is frequently reported, detailed longitudinal neuropsychological characterization remains scarce. We aimed to describe the trajectory of cognitive and neuropsychiatric PCS symptoms. 42 individuals with persisting cognitive deficits after asymptomatic to mild/moderate acute COVID-19 at study inclusion received neuropsychological assessment at baseline (BL) and follow-up (FU; six months after BL). Assessments included comprehensive testing of five neurocognitive domains, two cognitive screening tests, and questionnaires on depression, anxiety, sleep, fatigue, and health-related quality of life. Results showed high rates of subjective cognitive complaints at BL and FU (95.2% versus 88.1%) without significant change over time. However, objectively measured neurocognitive disorder (NCD) decreased (61.9% versus 42.9%). All cognitive domains were affected, yet most deficits were found in learning and memory, followed by executive functions, complex attention, language, and perceptual motor functions. In individuals with NCD, the first three domains mentioned improved significantly over time, while the last two domains remained unchanged. Cognitive screening tests did not prove valuable in detecting impairment. Neuropsychiatric symptoms remained constant except for quality of life, which improved. This study emphasizes the importance of comprehensive neuropsychological assessment in longitudinal research and provides valuable insights into the trajectory of long-term neuropsychological impairments in PCS. While cognitive performance significantly improved in many domains, neuropsychiatric symptoms remained unchanged.