Long Covid symptoms linked to measurable damage in the brain's dopamine system
3 hours ago
- Long COVID patients show an 18% reduction in dopamine-releasing nerve terminals in the brain, as measured by PET imaging.
- This dopamine loss correlates with specific symptoms: apathy, memory problems, and slowed physical movements.
- The study suggests that dopamine-boosting treatments could be a new therapeutic direction for long COVID.
- Structural MRI scans often appear normal, but molecular imaging reveals underlying brain chemistry changes.
- The findings are from a small case-control study (24 patients) and need confirmation in larger, diverse groups.
- The biological mechanism may involve inflammation damaging dopamine neurons, but causality is not proven.