(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A new study by Northwestern Medicine is providing some insight on COVID long-haulers.
Researchers focused on 600 long COVID patients -- 100 of whom had been hospitalized during their infections and 500 who had milder cases that didn't require hospitalization.
Doctors noted the most common neurologic symptom in both groups was brain fog, with 81% of the patients experiencing it. The most common non-neurologic symptom was fatigue, with nearly 86% of patients impacted by it.
Other common symptoms experienced by more than half the patients included headaches, dizziness, loss of taste or smell, depression, anxiety and insomnia.
“We are trying to understand here not only how to better diagnose these patients and better treat them, but also what is causing long COVID in the first place,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuroinfectious diseases at Northwestern Medicine.
The study also found that COVID long-haulers who were hospitalized showed broad cognitive impairment, while the patients with mild infections mainly had difficulties with attention tasks.
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