Longest follow-up to date
Commenting on the research, Heather Snyder, PhD, vice president, medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association, noted the study is “the longest follow-up we’ve seen” looking at the connection between persistent loss of smell and cognitive changes after a COVID-19 infection.
The study included a “fairly large” sample size and was “unique” in that it was set up in a part of the country with centralized testing, said Dr. Snyder.
The Argentinian group is among the most advanced of those connected to the CNS SC2, said Dr. Snyder.
Members of this Alzheimer’s Association consortium, said Dr. Snyder, regularly share updates of ongoing studies, which are at different stages and looking at various neuropsychiatric impacts of COVID-19. It is important to bring these groups together to determine what those impacts are “because no one group will be able to do this on their own,” she said. “We saw pretty early on that some individuals had changes in the brain, or changes in cognition, and loss of sense of smell or taste, which indicates there’s a connection to the brain.”
However, she added, “there’s still a lot we don’t know” about this connection.
The study was funded by Alzheimer’s Association and FULTRA.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.