There is growing awareness that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, even in its mild or moderate respiratory forms, can include long-term neuropsychological deficits. Standardized neuropsychological, psychiatric, neurological, and olfactory tests were administered to 45 patients 236.51 ± 22.54 days after hospital discharge following severe, moderate, or mild respiratory severity from SARS-CoV-2 infection (severe = intensive care unit hospitalization, moderate = conventional hospitalization, mild = no hospitalization). Deficits were found in all domains of cognition, and the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms was relatively high in the three groups. The severe infection group performed more poorly on long-term episodic memory tests and exhibited greater anosognosia than did the other two groups. Those with moderate infection had poorer emotion recognition, which was positively correlated with persistent olfactory dysfunction. Individuals with mild infection were more stressed, anxious, and depressed. The data support the hypothesis that the virus targets the central nervous system (notably the limbic system) and the notion that there are different neuropsychological phenotypes.

As personality changes and personality disorders are frequently observed in multiple sclerosis (MS), personality may be a prognostic factor for this disease. The present study investigated the influence of personality on disability, progression, and treatment adherence in MS. Personality was assessed in 41 patients with Relapsing–Remitting MS (30 females; mean age = 42.63 years) using the NEO Personality Inventory—3rd edition. Disability was measured with the Expanded Disability Status Scale, and treatment adherence information was collected from the Swiss MS Cohort. Correlation, multiple linear and partial least square regressions were performed to examine relations between personality, disability, and treatment adherence in MS. After accounting for age and time since disease onset, our analysis revealed that Neuroticism (β = 0.32, p = 0.01) and its Vulnerability facet (β = 0.28, p < 0.05) predicted greater disability, whereas Extraversion (β = −0.25, p = 0.04) and its Activity facet (β = −0.23, p < 0.05) predicted milder disability. Regarding disability progression, correlational analysis revealed that it was negatively correlated with Extraversion (r = −0.44, p = 0.02) and the Feelings facet of Openness (r = −0.41, p = 0.03), but regressions failed to highlight any predictive links. No significant results could be demonstrated for treatment adherence. Overall, our study showed that some personality traits can impact disability in MS, indicating that these should be considered in clinical practice, as they could be used to adapt and improve patients’ clinical support.

This meta-analysis was conducted to quantify the risk of patients exhibiting cognitive deficits in the acute phase of COVID-19 at the time of the first variants (i.e., before the vaccine) and quantify the potential vulnerability of older patients and those who experienced more severe respiratory symptoms. To this end, we searched the LitCovid and EMBASE platforms for articles, including preprints, and included all studies (n = 48) that featured a measurement of cognition, which encompassed 2233 cases of COVID-19. Of these, 28 studies reported scores on global cognitive efficiency scales administered in the acute phase of COVID-19 (up to 3 months after infection). We were able to perform a meta-analysis of proportions on 24 articles (N_patients = 943), and a logistic regression on 18 articles (N_patients = 518). The meta-analysis for proportion indicated that 52.31% of patients with COVID-19 exhibited cognitive deficits in the acute phase. This high percentage, however, has to be interpreted taking in consideration the fact that the majority of patients were hospitalized, and some presented neurological complications, such as encephalopathy. A bootstrap procedure with random resampling revealed that an age of 59 was the threshold at which one would be more prone to present cognitive deficits. However, the severity of respiratory symptoms did not influence the scores on a global cognitive efficiency scale. Overall, our results indicated that neuropsychological deficits were a major consequence of the acute phase of the first forms of COVID-19.