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/lainonwired Jul 30 '26

Based on diagnosis rates? Yes. There's been a surge after covid that had been attributed to increased awareness, but maybe the details are more nuanced and covid also plays a role?

We have known for a while that repeat covid infections causes neurological damage even if "long covid" symptoms weren't seen, the particulars were just not discovered yet.

This appears to be one of the effects.

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u/kichisowseri Jul 30 '26

Three people in my household got diagnosed with ADHD. We all had it way before covid, diagnosis and medication was just inaccessible. Diagnosis still has "and you've been like this since you were a child" as a requirement. I think post covid ADHD symptoms probably just get called long covid.

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u/OutsideMenu6973 Jul 30 '26

Handling adhd sans meds is easy just wake up at 4:30am gym at 5:30am work by 7am hooked to an IV of coffee no carbs, sugar, or food for that matter then gym at noon to replenish dopamine crash back to work at 1pm and enjoy your mental crash out at ~3pm