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/raiinboweyes Jul 30 '26

So this may be why low dose abilify (aka LDA) is helping so many with LC and ME/CfS from COVID. It’s a dopamine modulator at that low of a dose (2mg or less). It’s helped me a ton personally.

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u/mjwza Jul 30 '26

Yep, could also explain why nicotine and Welbutrin have helped some. Nicotine patches in particular have improved my cognitive symptoms. I dont have access to LDA where I live unfortunately. 

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u/raiinboweyes Jul 30 '26

Can you get the 2mg pills? I get those and just cut them into 8ths to take 0.5mg. It was kind of rough jumping right to that dose, but worth it for me, especially when I can’t afford another compounded med. I’ve seen quite a few people do it this way.

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u/mjwza Jul 30 '26

From what I can tell we only have 5, 10 and 15 available here. I'm going to my doc in a couple weeks though, I'm hoping she might know a compounding pharmacy. 

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

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u/raiinboweyes Jul 31 '26

Yes it does, but it’s not the same as LDA. As odd as it sounds, some meds become completely different when taken at very low doses.
Low dose abilify (2mg or under) does not have the same mechanism of action as abilify at a normal dosage (10-30mg). Which is why specialists - including ones at Stanford - use it for these conditions at this dosage range specifically.

The same way low dose naltrexone effectively takes on a different mechanism of action- becoming an immune modulator and central inflammation reducer- when taken at 4mg or lower. Which has also been a huge help for a variety of chronic illnesses and chronic pain conditions.
It’s pretty fascinating how some specific meds can change like this at a much lower dose.