COVID-19 Linked To Strokes, Psychosis In Children: Study

PITTSBURGH, PA — COVID-19 and an affliction it can trigger later can cause serious neurological problems in children, according to a study led by a pediatrician and scientist at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The most common neurologic issues liked to COVID-19 in kids were headache, acute encephalopathy and seizures. Those afflicted with multisystem inflamatory syndrome, which typically occurs several weeks after the virus has dissipated, suffered from headaches, acute encephalopathy and dizziness.

Rarer symptoms of COVID-19 multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children included loss of smell, vision impairment, stroke and psychosis, according to Dr. Erika Fink, the study's lead author, a UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh pediatric intensivist and associate professor of critical care medicine at Pitt.

"This study shows that the frequency of neurological manifestations is high—and it may actually be higher than what we found because these symptoms are not always documented in the
medical record or assessable," Fink said. "For example, we can't know if a baby is having a headache."

Thirty pediatric critical care centers around the world participated in the study, which analyzed the medical conditions of 1,493 hospitalized children.

The findings are the first insights from the pediatric branch of GCS-NeuroCOVID, an international, multi-center consortium aiming to understand how COVID-19 affects the brain and nervous system.

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