Cathy Ruth* and Michal Hordy
Many patients recovering from COVID-19 report persistent psychological and cognitive symptoms months after the virus has been eradicated. We investigated the relationship between depression and COVID-induced PTSD and cognitive symptoms after COVID-19 illness. Methods: Patients who received COVID-19 treatment between March 26 and May 27, 2020 were polled three months later. The following questions were used to assess cognitive symptoms: "Since your COVID-19 illness, do you now have more difficulty: 1) Do you remember conversations from a few days ago? 2) Do you remember where you put familiar objects? 3) Finding the right words to say?" Patients who agreed with at least one of these complaints were coded as having cognitive symptoms. Adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, logistic regression was used to estimate the association of depression (PHQ-8 10) and COVID-induced PTSD (PCL-5 30) with cognitive symptoms. Results: Results showed that 44.4% of the 153 participants had at least one cognitive symptom, 18.3% were depressed, and 23.5% had COVID-induced PTSD. Adjusting for covariates, depression (OR 5.15, 95% CI 1.30-20.35, p =0.02) and COVID-induced PTSD (OR 3.67, 95% CI 1.13-11.89, p=0.03) were significantly associated with cognitive symptoms, as was a history of mental illness (OR 4.90, 95% CI 1.24-19.41, p=0.02). Conclusions: Three months after acute COVID-19 illness, depression, COVID-induced PTSD, and prior mental illness were strongly associated with cognitive symptoms.