[hnuser847]

The problem with the concept of covid-induced brain fog is that the symptoms of brain fog are indistinguishable from general anxiety. I'm still not convinced that brain fog is a legitimate, medical outcome of having covid, as opposed to a culturally-conditioned response that's dependent on one's perception of the severity of covid. Anecdotally, among the people I know in real life, the only ones that have complained about post-covid brain fog are those that already tend to be hypochondriacs or doomers.

[hilbertseries]

Long covid is very real and is not anxiety. There have been studies linking post covid fatigue and conditions to viral persistence and micro clotting. This type of post covid is just anxiety discourse is incredibly harmful.

[Llamamoe]

This kind of discourse has been par for the course for as long as "mental illness" has existed. I don't know a single chronically ill person who hasn't gone through being undermined and treated this way.

[nradov]

Post viral syndrome has been been recognized for decades and linked to a wide variety of different viruses. So although the exact mechanisms aren't clearly understood there's no reason to think that SARS-CoV-2 couldn't cause similar effects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1710789/

But in terms of specific symptoms, a recent study found only a weak correlation between confirmed COVID-19 and brain fog. Other persistent symptoms such as anosmia are much more common.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w

[2301421898]

From the linked article

> those with COVID-19 had greater microglial reactivity than those in the control group, in a pattern that matched what was found in the mice.

This is evidence that brain fog isn't just "a culturally-conditioned response." Rather, we can physically measure an impact of covid on the brain.

[johnday]

This is a great point! In order to find out, perhaps we should engage some experts at a leading research institution to do some wider studies that are able to account for such factors. Maybe Stanford could do it?

[Llamamoe]

I can't distinguish your comment from cognitive impairment either, but I do you the favour of assuming you're capable of evaluating and describing what's going in your head, and you'd do well to do the same for others.

[zdragnar]

Anecdotally, my brother developed long covid, with both physical (increased heart rate, increased recovery time from simple tasks like walking up stairs) and mental (only occasional brain fog). Never had these problems prior to covid. He's one of the most level-headed people I know, and is not prone to over-reacting to pretty much anything (his wife does that for him).

If he says he personally experiences a thing, I'll trust his word over an armchair therapist on the internet any day of the week.

[lostlogin]

You don’t need to rely on anecdata, there are a ton of studies on this. For example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9685075/