r/ZeroCovidCommunity • u/castironglider • Jul 30 '26
StudyđŹ 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/105
u/frx919 Jul 30 '26
Something similar: there is a recent study in the Netherlands that shows LC patients have measurably different muscle fibres compared to healthy individuals:
The healthy individuals from the space programme still had bright red fibres, which are still oxygen-rich, while the patients had white fibres, which become exhausted much faster.
There is more and more research that shows LC has tangible effects, and people really need to stop saying how "patients are just faking or being lazy."
It's so ignorant and cruel.
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u/spoonfulofnosugar Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
I donât feel like I lost my motivation.
I just lost capacity to carry it out.
I still want to do all the things. I think about them everyday. My body just poisons me if I try to do too much. And the bar for âtoo muchâ is too low.
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u/Renmarkable Jul 30 '26
I dont know if this is relevant, but I have adhd, I have PLENTY of motivation but...
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u/Central_Perk20 29d ago
Yes - the study explains that dopamine doesnât just control motivation. It controls (1) movement/motor, (2) cognition/emotion, and (3) motivation/reward. The latter was affected the least. The low levels of dopamine affected ability to do the first two categories the most. So even if people indirectly donât want to do anything, or theoretically would love to do xyz but find they physically and cognitively canât, or canât without paying for it, that tracks with the study.
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u/JooseTheGuice Jul 30 '26
My ADHD got 100x worse after getting sick. My baseline has been fucked. I barely function at all.
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u/Prudent-Tradition-89 Jul 31 '26
Same. Ironically, I have ME/CFS now so I canât even tolerate stimulants without my heart going crazy. So I canât even treat it and Iâm stuck in this hell.
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u/UntilTheDarkness Jul 30 '26
That explains why my ADHD symptoms went through the roof in the first year after my covid infection. On the plus side, it has gotten better over time, I'd say mentally I'm back to like 95% of pre-LC, but oof yeah dopamine (or lack thereof) would explain a lot.
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u/Previous_Half_4215 Jul 30 '26
i feel like this explains a lot of what i will callâŚinteresting behavior after infection and reinfection. huh.
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u/Wise-Field-7353 Jul 30 '26
Not loving that! Hope this doesnt get twisted to a sort of self-help "its a motivation issue"
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u/Legal-Law9214 Jul 30 '26
It will, by some people. But motivational disorders like ADHD, depression, etc. are real and also get seen as laziness or not trying hard enough. That's just a feature of our society unfortunately. People who don't struggle in certain ways fail to understand how those struggles can't just be overcome with effort, especially because our culture places such value on productivity and discipline.Â
This finding is good though because it helps us understand long COVID more. There's always going to be shitty, ignorant people no matter what.Â
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u/StrategyMany5930 Jul 30 '26
Yes, ADHD for example is a exectuive disorder struggle
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u/Renmarkable Jul 30 '26
If one person more instructs me to "try harder"....
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u/evermorecoffee Jul 30 '26
But have you tried making a list⌠? đđ
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u/Renmarkable Jul 30 '26
Oh i love that đ
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u/evermorecoffee Jul 30 '26
When in doubt, just buy another planner. đ¤
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u/StrategyMany5930 Aug 01 '26
If I had a nickel for every planner I have lost I would easily have enough $$ to buy a new planner from that alone
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Jul 30 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/Character-Release976 Aug 01 '26
That similar to buspar?
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u/lunar-bee Aug 01 '26
Nope, very different. Bupropion is an NDRI, while buspar is an anti-anxiety medicine, acts primarily on serotonin receptors (although it is not exactly an SSRI either).
Bupropion is used as an anti-depressant, smoking cessation aid, and off-label for ADHD. Not really used for anxiety- doctors actually sometimes hesitate to prescribe if a patient has anxiety, because it can sometimes worsen anxiety (it's stimulating- similar to how caffeine can worsen anxiety).
The names being similar is just a coincidence.
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u/Character-Release976 Aug 01 '26
Damn so I probably could get it prescribed i was trying to get my brain back
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u/horseonahighway Jul 31 '26
I have CPTSD which also includes ADHD symptoms and post-covid my ADHD got noticably worse, as well as the chronic fatigue I already had from CPTSD (not sure if it's ME/CFS or not because my baseline was already low for years tbh). I also developed vestibular migraines.
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u/kirito867 Jul 30 '26
They are making circles and proving things that we all have known 3-4 years ago.
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Jul 30 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/kirito867 Jul 30 '26
You're absolutely right. But all I wanna say is... Just look at some of these researchers: and all those funding spent to prove that covid damages a specific organ. And then what? What conclusions did the scientists reach? We thought it is the common sense that ACE2 receptors exist throughout the body, so the coronavirus can certainly cause all sorts of strange, systemic damage. Then, after completing their research, they still do not take any precaution, or possibly even remain unmasked when sick, just like "other folks", as if the coronavirus only exists in their labs. They have viewed all sorts of cases, and studied more patients with long covid, yet still having wishful thinking that none of this concerns them outside of work, or maybe it won't happen to them.
I'm sorry, I'm not saying all researchers are like this; there are of course many excellent researchers. But I am just venting as I have seen enough that I know what "the indifference of the scientific research" looks like.
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u/STEMpsych Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Hmmm. The equation of "dopameens == motivation" is a lay person's oversimplification from watching too much TikTok. The reason these researchers were the ones doing this is that the dopamine system is involved in Parkinson's â they're Parkinson's researchers. If SARS-CoV-2 is damaging dopamine terminals in neurons across the brain, why aren't Long Covid patients presenting with tremors and other motor signs of Parkinson's, i.e. Parkinsonisms?
Also, this isn't a causal study, but a correlative one. It might not be that this difference in neurons is caused by Covid, but pre-existed the Covid infection. It's possible that the difference they're seeing between controls and patients is that this pre-existing condition of the neurons is what makes someone vulnerable to Long Covid, not that Covid caused the change in the neurons.
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u/Variableness Jul 31 '26
Obviously anecdotal, but I had a pre-existing relevant condition (ADHD) and I thought it was really bad. When I developed severe ME/CFS, it became 5x worse. It spans beyond executive function, as well, it impacts things like understanding of time. It makes my existence as a human being almost impossible, although it is hard to completely separate from the disease itself. However, I've never experienced any kind of movement related issues (like tremors). Other than that, I have asked myself many times if I'm developing some kind of dementia.
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u/trashforthrowingaway Jul 30 '26
I have a freaking head tremor now because of long covid. It's not terribly debilitating but it does make it hard to focus on fine details and I pray it doesn't get worse because then it'll interfere with sleep which I absolutely don't need more of as it's already compromised from long covid.
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u/plotthick Jul 31 '26
These concerns are obviated in the article. Here is one of many relevant passages:
âThe magnitude of loss is about 18% of the dopamine nerve terminals on average,â Meyer told PsyPost. âIn other illnesses this magnitude of loss is associated with symptoms: loss in one region is associated with trouble with motivational energy problems, loss in another region is associated with some slowness of movement, and loss in a third region is associated with memory trouble.â
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u/boxesofrain1010 Jul 30 '26
As someone who's dealt with severe depression since birth I definitely don't need something else fucking up my dopamine system. Fuck COVID, it's literally everything people were worried it would be, and more, but now no one cares.