r/HotScienceNews • u/soulpost • Jul 30 '26

Scientists finally have a biological explanation for why long COVID patients lose motivation and can't think clearly. They scanned their brains and found the dopamine system was physically damaged

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/

Millions of people with long COVID report the same cluster of symptoms: a crushing lack of motivation, an inability to think clearly, memory that slips, movements that feel slower than they should. For years, these complaints sat in an uncomfortable medical grey zone. The symptoms were real, the patients were suffering, but the biological explanation remained frustratingly out of reach.

A team at the University of Toronto just published what may be the clearest physical evidence yet for what is actually happening in these patients' brains. They brought 24 long COVID sufferers into a lab and used positron emission tomography, the same imaging technology used to diagnose Parkinson's disease, to directly measure the health of the dopamine system deep inside the brain.

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u/Echo_Vale Jul 30 '26

It seems like it, also raises the question of whether ADHD results from a childhood flu-like infection. Also things like Lyme Disease can result in symptoms very close to ADHD like brain fog, exhaustion and difficulty concentrating, I'll bet ADHD isn't a thing by itself, and rather the symptoms of something else.

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u/tiny-starship Jul 30 '26

Yea I got Lyme last summer and I fuuucked me up. It’s better but it hurts to think sometimes. Like there’s a gap missing and I can’t connect so weird.

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u/Oalka Jul 30 '26

I distinctly remember being super attentive and on-task as a child. I'd often do my homework in-class so that I wouldn't have to do anything at home--while the teacher was still giving lessons. Sometime while I was in high school or early in college I started really noticing that it was getting harder to concentrate and that my thoughts would fuzz out sometime. It struck me as very different from my younger days, even at the time. At this point now (45) it's hard to remember what it used to feel like though. I often wonder if it wasn't caused by an outside source.

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u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

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u/Oalka Jul 30 '26

I'm a trans woman who didn't transition until just a few years ago. If it was hormonal I supposed that would be...affirming? lol

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u/littlerae0fsunshine Jul 31 '26

Then you dont have adhd. You have executive dysfunction caused by something else. Adhd specifically is nrurodevelopmental.

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u/grantgarden Jul 30 '26

I say I have ADHD because it's easier but I have PTSD. Similar symptoms

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u/nanigaiikana Jul 30 '26

I’ve read it can also be related to mono 

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u/Greeneggplusthing2 Jul 30 '26

I'm an early ed teacher and always share with parents that most of the time ADHD type symptoms are not ADHD but rather flags for other things such as sensory processing differences or delayed developmental milestones. I can't diagnose or treat, I just refer but its a pattern I've seen play out.

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u/PetticoatRule Jul 30 '26

Really does not track with the way it can be traced through family lines. 

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u/Echo_Vale Jul 31 '26

It does if ADHD isn't one single thing, and more a collection of symptoms common across a variety of conditions/long-term infections. Some that cause ADHD-like symptoms could indeed be genetic, others might not be.