The Sunday New York Times has a compelling story about how Covid restrictions appear to be hastening the decline of people with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Eminent Parkinson’s expert Dr. Michael Okun, head of the Fixel Institute at the University of Florida, calls the featured story one of “huge” importance.
The story is titled: “We Are Going to Keep You Safe, Even if It Kills Your Spirit.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/opinion/covid-dementia.html?referringSource=articleShare
It documents how Covid distancing requirements have accelerated the decline of patients with signs and symptoms of dementia. That includes cases of Mild Cognitive Impairment, which is commonplace in advancing Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Writes Katie Englehart, author of the article: “Around the country, geriatricians describe an acceleration of decline — one that they say has not yet been captured and construed by academic literature, but that they see play out in the bodies and minds of their patients. People with dementia are losing things faster than they should: weight, words, functional abilities, their remaining sense of self.”
Anecdotally, my experience with Parkie friends in Macon (Ga) and Tampa supports the story’s thrust. Most of us say our PD symptoms– most definitely including cognition– have worsened in the past year since Covid.
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