Neurology and neuropsychiatry of #COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the early literature reveals frequent CNS manifestations and key emerging narratives | Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
▻https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2021/06/03/jnnp-2021-326405
In our review, we summarise point prevalence of 20 neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of COVID-19. The most frequently studied symptoms were heavily weighted towards non-specific features of systemic illness, such as headache, myalgia, fatigue, anosmia and dysgeusia, which are unlikely to be ‘primary’ neurological symptoms. It was predominantly these more non-specific symptoms that were found to have the highest prevalences, ranging from 20.7% (16.1% to 26.1%) to 43.1% (35.2% to 51.3%) (headache and anosmia, respectively). Of note, more specific neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as altered mental status, depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, stroke and seizures were less frequently studied. However, the core psychiatric disorders of depression (23.0% (11.8% to 40.2%)) and anxiety (15.9% (5.6% to 37.7%)) appeared to be highly prevalent. The reported prevalence of major neurological disorders such as ischaemic stroke (1.9% (1.3% to 2.8%)), haemorrhagic stroke (0.4% (0.3% to 0.7%)) and seizure (0.06% (0.06% to 0.07%)) were substantially lower. Subgroup analyses suggested that study design (prospective vs retrospective), severity of illness and country of origin of a study affected the prevalence figures obtained. Importantly, for myalgia, fatigue, anosmia and dysgeusia, prevalences were substantially higher in prospective studies compared with retrospective studies.