Neuroscientists exploring the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on the brain are recruiting participants for a study which has been created to provide answers for healthcare professionals and improved care for millions of patients across the world.
The COVID-19 Brain Study is looking to find 50,000 people globally who received a confirmed positive diagnosis of the virus, in order to answer some of the main questions about the disease’s direct and indirect effects on the brain.
The study, which has been translated into three languages, hopes to break new ground in understanding the neurological impact of COVID-19, which so far remains largely unknown.
COVID-19 Brain Study, a collaboration between Western, the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, comprises three online sessions across a year, and will end in June 2021.
“The problem is a bit like when governments were deciding to enter lockdown – timing is everything,” says Dr Adrian Owen, a world-renowned cognitive neuroscience and imaging professor at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
“We need to start collecting this data now. We can’t start looking at this issue in a year’s time because if there are cognitive impairments, and we know there will be, it’s going to be too late.”
As COVID-19 spread across the world, the international healthcare response overwhelmingly focused on diagnosis, contact tracing, containment and supportive care, in response to the rapidly-increasing numbers of cases.
Research also targeted these areas, especially on improving testing and vaccine development, but so far, little work has been done on the potential neurological effects and longer-term impacts of the disease.
That is an important gap to start spanning immediately, according to researchers.
“A year from now, we will have more than eight million people worldwide recovering from COVID-19. So we may also have eight million people with short- and long-term cognitive problems,” says Dr Owen.
For the new study, Dr Owen has partnered with Dr Rick Swartz, a stroke neurologist and cognitive scientist from Sunnybrook and the University of Toronto.
They started working together in 2011, shortly after the British-born neuroscientist moved to Western from the University of Cambridge, and have worked on various cases and research projects over the years.
The team is turning to patients to explore many unanswered questions, ranging from whether COVID-19 infection could result in significant cognitive impairment, to whether there are correlations between sex, age and medical risk factors which result in greater impact.
“We also need to understand whether COVID-19 patients are getting better or worse over time,” Dr Swartz says.
“And is it only some patients? For example, is it only those who were ventilated or sedated?
“This study will allow us to ask these relevant questions on a global scale and to inform efforts to improve recovery and long-term function for the millions of COVID-19 survivors around the world.”
Dr Owen said the pandemic has seen an unprecedented spike in ICU demand. Patients who exit the ICU can suffer from a spectrum of physical, functional and neuropsychological issues known as ‘post-intensive care syndrome’ (PICS).
In a 2019 study published by PlosOne, researchers showed that cognitive impairments in daily function are common as a result of ICU visits. Nearly all patients are cognitively impaired at the time of ICU discharge. Two-thirds are not back to their baseline function after six months and roughly half have cognitive impairment years later.
“ICU survivors are vulnerable to cognitive impairment. So, as the number of recovered COVID-19 patients continues to climb, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that getting sent home from the ICU is not the end for these people. It’s just the beginning of their recovery,” Dr Owen adds.
* To participate in the COVID-19 Brain Study, visit https://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/studies/covid-brain-study
