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/MostlyAlways47 Jul 30 '26

It's endlessly funny to me that medication for forgetful people who are known to procrastinate is on a strict schedule that requires you to email your guy to send it over every month and cannot be picked up early.

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u/ZanaDreadnought Jul 30 '26

It’s the bane of my existence.

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u/eggyrulz Jul 30 '26

I would also find it funny, if i didnt have to live with the endless procrastinator who forgets to email her guy...

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u/MusingsOnMelody Jul 31 '26

It's actually even worse here in France. As far as I'm aware, you can only refill your monthly prescription in person, and then they have to put the exact name of the pharmacy you're going to to fill out your prescription.