The Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is following patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 over time to see if they develop long-term cognitive impairment, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
These disabling features suffered by millions of ICU survivors are called Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS).
“There is emerging evidence that COVID-19 affects the brain and leads to a wide range of neurological complications such as delirium. Because it affects the brain and causes delirium, we hypothesize that a disproportionate number of patients might develop long-term cognitive impairment, PTSD and depression,” said Jin Han, MD, MSc, associate professor of Emergency Medicine and principal investigator of the study.