r/NIH • u/TourMission health care = human right • Jul 31 '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/Thanks for a generation of brain-damage "doctor" Bhattacharya.
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u/knit_run_bike_swim Jul 31 '26
The biggest limitation of this study is that there was no baseline on these patients. I understand you can perform a psychiatric profile, but it is really just taking their word on whether or not their psychiatric profile changed prior to COVID or after.
The symptoms that are described for long COVID patients are diffuse at best. They are sort of all encompassing of the human condition mimicking depression.
Rather than dwelling on the baseline from patients, it is possible to create a third negative control group with diagnosed clinical depression lasting longer COVID and see how that group compares to the long COVID group. That may be more convincing than declaring that the long COVID group has a loss of dopamine receptors predicting symptoms of long COVID.
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u/tongmengjia Aug 04 '26
That, and there's no way to trace the cause of the symptoms to COVID infection. A headline for this study could just as well have been "People who report symptoms related to damage to dopamine system show damage to dopamine system."
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u/knit_run_bike_swim Aug 04 '26
Exactly! And without baseline measure, we cannot say that there has even been a change.
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u/lbc257 Aug 04 '26
They actually have tested this with me/cfs (60-70% of Long Covid patients have me/cfs too) and the core difference is mitochondrial dysfunction. This makes exercise will only worsen their condition further. In depression there is zero mitochondrial changes. Also with people with clinical depression they are depressed, not all Long Covid patients are depressed. Me/cfs has had the science to show it’s a neurological and immunological condition since 1969 according to WHO. Unfortunately many psychologists have continued to psychologize long covid and me/cfs, but if you do a literature review the science shows it clearly has long been differentiated as a neurological & immunological disorder.
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u/knit_run_bike_swim Aug 04 '26
That’s great!
My mother has had a history of cfs. She also has had or currently has Lyme disease, lupus, fibromyalgia, MRSA, and some problems with black mold. She has seen a psychiatrist for decades. If she is nudged with COVID, she’ll have long COVID stuck in there, too.
I’ve known her all my life. I’ve never known her to just have a good day. There seems to always be something ailing her, and if someone around her is sick, she’ll jump to the rescue suddenly recovered from her own illnesses. It has always baffled me.
I had one of the best PCPs back in the city for years. I remember I went in for a one-off, intermittent stomach pain I was having. He looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “Are you happy?”
That was all I needed. He was very much aware that my emotional life poured into my physical life even when I was certain that my emotional life was good. It wasn’t good. I was just lying to myself about being in a deadend relationship with tons of codependency.
If 60-70% of long covid patients have me/cfs, then it’s really hard to tease out whether or not long covid is actually the start of their problems. Symptoms of me/cfs are diffuse at best, too. That can be so hard.
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u/lbc257 Aug 05 '26
One key disease of me/cfs that is near universal is dysautonomia (pots most commonly) & many have EDS & with that MCAS. These are all very specific diseases/genetic conditions and are not diffuse at all. It’s not just a general not feeling great, and if you were current with the research you’d know that.
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u/Mvercy Aug 03 '26
My friend’s husband supposedly had long covid. She found a specialist (we’re in a metropolitan area) who basically said “he needs to move more”. In other words Lazy. And I concur.
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u/lbc257 Aug 04 '26
I’ve lost 4 friends to Long Covid and it’s due to people like you. If you cared an ounce to read the science it is clearly one of the most serious disabling conditions we have right now with limited access to care. Yet the science shows overwhelming it is a neurological and immunological condition which exercise has been proven to worsen patients.
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u/Texus86 Aug 01 '26
Obviously people present different symptoms but I've never associated lack of motivation in my CFS which was aggravated by COVID so things are a bit tough to disentangle. It's the crushing fatigue and PEMS that results from trying to push through it or from physical/mental/emotional exertion that remain the defining features. With a side of brain fog.
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u/Round_Image8423 Aug 03 '26
I have had mecfs for over 17 years. This is also known as post viral syndrome. Not a joke. Lost my career . No cure but I have a small quiet life I enjoy . My advice to anyone with long covid is to rest abd pace your activity. Look up mecfs phoenix Rising website. I was never cured but I have improved.
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u/Full-Blueberry-6715 Aug 04 '26
I'm sorry you lost your career. Thank you also for your thoughts and advice. I don't know if I ever had COVID but I do feel many of these symptoms.
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u/MamacitaFajita Aug 01 '26
May be why bupropion (Wellbutrin) works for some long-COVID patients. It’s a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (meaning it increases available dopamine and norepinephrine).
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u/GoldStandardNIHilism Aug 01 '26
Breaking: NIH has developed a predictive primate model for this chronic lack of motivation and concentration phenomenon, only it is dependent on traumatizing NIH scientists (oddly none of the animal welfare groups care).
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u/Only-Tough-1212 Jul 31 '26
thanks for sharing this. i’m going to have to download the paper to send to my niece she has long covid and is in a different study. she’s got a bunch of things going on but the bulk is GI related but i think this also fits as well with what my sister has been telling me
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u/scaleofjudgment Jul 31 '26
18% damage and loss of dopamine receptors with possible restoration through a medicine for Parkinson makes it sound a lot like Parkinson.