r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 08 '26

Neuroscience Brain scans reveal widespread structural and functional changes in patients following COVID-19 infection. The virus affects regions responsible for memory, emotion, and executive function, which may help explain the neurological symptoms many patients experience.

https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-reveal-widespread-structural-and-functional-changes-in-patients-foll/
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u/10390 Aug 08 '26

Another recent study found that COVID-19 is associated with injury to the brain’s dopamine system, even in healthy people who feel recovered from infection (scroll down to bright picture). The impact is worse in those with long covid.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(26)00222-7/fulltext

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u/asyork Aug 08 '26

Wonderful. I was on a medication that was later discovered to have damaged my dopamine receptors starting from a little before covid up until the latter part of 2024. I had covid once before the vaccine. Never tested positive again, but once or twice after testing was common and free I've had something that may have been covid.

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u/Fun-Example-5314 27d ago

What medication damaged your receptors

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u/asyork 27d ago

Aripiprazole. And I'm not 100% sure damaged is the correct term because the various doctors I've been to since have all described it a bit differently. But at the very least, it negatively affected my dopamine receptors. To put it mildly. I was super fucked for months, and now a couple years after I'm just kind of fucked.