Post #4249522
2026-07-30 18:07 UTC
A new study published today in eBioMedicine, part of the Lancet portfolio and one of the most rigorous journals in clinical medicine, provides what researchers describe as the clearest physical evidence yet of what long COVID is doing to the brain. Using the same imaging technology used to detect early Parkinson’s disease, a team led by Jeffrey Meyer at the University of Toronto scanned the brains of 24 long COVID patients and 24 healthy matched controls. They were not looking for general inflammation or nonspecific brain changes. They were measuring one specific thing: the health of the neurons that release dopamine.
What they found was a measurable, consistent, and symptom-correlated loss of dopamine nerve terminals averaging 18 percent across the long COVID group.
https://tech-paper.com/scientists-finally-have-a-biological-explanation-for-why-long-covid-patients-lose-motivation-and-cant-think-clearly-they-scanned-their-brains-and-found-the-dopamine-system-was-physically-damaged/
#LongCovid #PublicHealth #CovidIsNotOver
Replies (4)
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@craig_groeschel@zeroes.ca 2026-07-30 19:04
@currentbias@zeroes.ca From 2024: https://torontosun.com/health/unexpected-result-covid-19-makes-you-miserable-by-draining-dopamine
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@ZenHeathen@beige.party 2026-07-30 19:59
@currentbias@zeroes.ca So... getting Long Covid brain fog is basically like acquiring ADHD. Since ADHD itself is lifelong, for the first time, some people who don't have it will be able to actually understand what it's really like for those who do.
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@dahie@chaos.social 2026-07-30 21:00
@currentbias@zeroes.ca so in broad terms - it causes ADHD? O.o
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@violetmadder@kolektiva.social 2026-07-30 22:43
@currentbias@zeroes.ca Well, that's disturbing.