Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Developing a test for long COVID 'brain fog'

Two blood biomarkers could be predictive of cognitive deficits six and 12 months after a diagnosis of COVID-19, reports a new study published in Nature Medicine. These findings, based on data from more than 1,800 patients ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

What is, and what isn't, 'brain fog?'

The COVID pandemic has introduced many scientific and medical terms into our everyday language. Many of us are now fluent in conversations about viral strains, PCR tests and mortality rates. "Brain fog" has joined these ranks ...

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Clouding of consciousness, also known as mental fog , is an abnormality in consciousness. The sufferer experiences a subjective sensation of mental clouding described as feeling "foggy" being in a "dreamy state" or feeling "out of it". Pathophysiologically, it is believed to be a manifestation of an abnormality in the regulation of the “overall level” of cortical function, referred to by neurologists as “arousal”. Thus, some authors prefer the more objective term “abnormal level” of consciousness over the subjective term “clouding” of consciousness. In the 1817 German treatise Verdunkelung des Bewusstseins, Greiner first coined and pioneered the term clouding of consciousness as the main pathophysiological feature of delirium. It is poorly recognized and poorly researched by conventional doctors, who tend to mislabel it or “psychologize” it. Alternative medicine practitioners popularly use the term “brain fog”; however there is no mention as to whether they intend the term to be synonymous with the conventional medicine term clouding of consciousness.

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