Further research is required to untangle the link between COVID-19 and brain damage.
The virus causing COVID-19 was not detected in the cerebrospinal brain fluid of any of the patients tested, suggesting the virus did not directly attack the brain to cause the neurological illness, however.
What’s more, in some patients, the researchers found evidence that the brain inflammation was likely caused by an immune response to the disease, suggesting that some neurological complications of COVID-19 might come from the immune response rather than the virus itself.
The findings build on another study, which also involved Dr Zandi and co-author Dr Hadi Manji (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), which identified 153 people with neurological complications from COVID-19.
