Remote Intervention for Assessing Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients With Long COVID: Leigh Charvet, PhD

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"We'll be centrally distributing these interventions, alone or in combination, across the country and monitoring the patients remotely. Our goal is very ambitious because we, and the whole world, want answers about treatments that we can use to help people."

According to recent research, one of the most common symptoms of long COVID is cognitive dysfunction, which is known to significantly impair quality of life among adult patients. These cognitive problems, most described as "brain fog," include trouble remembering things or problems focusing on tasks and are associated anxiety and depression.¹ Cognitive dysfunction in long COVID is a prevalent and multifaceted occurrence, and future understanding into the long-term effects, mechanisms, and therapies will depend on concerted efforts from the neurological community.²

In recent news, the randomized RECOVER-NEURO (NCT05965752) trial, a study assessing cognitive dysfunction associated with long COVID, began enrolling participants.³ The trial plans to enroll 315 total participants for a 10-week study intervention period, with a follow-up visit after 90 days. RECOVER-NEURO plans to assess 5 treatment arms, including the cognitive training program BrainHQ and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), alone and in combination, delivered at home to enrolled participants in the US.

Recently, coprincipal investigator Leigh Charvet, PhD, professor of neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, sat down in an interview with NeurologyLive® to discuss how the RECOVER-NEURO trial aims to address cognitive dysfunction in patients with long COVID. She also talked about the advantages of delivering treatments remotely to participants in the trial. In addition, she broke down the innovative treatments that are included in the trial, and how they could provide benefit patients with long COVID.

REFERENCES
1. Hugon J, Msika EF, Queneau M, Farid K, Paquet C. Long COVID: cognitive complaints (brain fog) and dysfunction of the cingulate cortex. J Neurol. 2022;269(1):44-46. doi:10.1007/s00415-021-10655-x
2. Gonzalez-Fernandez E, Huang J. Cognitive Aspects of COVID-19. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2023;23(9):531-538. doi:10.1007/s11910-023-01286-y
3. RECOVER-NEURO enrolls first participant in trial. News Release. RECOVER. Published September 5, 2023. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://recovercovid.org/updates/recover-neuro-enrolls-first-participant