1.Establishment of a Collaborative System for Long COVID Brain Fog Using a Questionnaire and Scoring
Rie ONO ; Shin TAKAYAMA ; Taizen NAKASE ; Akiko KIKUCHI ; Ryutaro ARITA ; Michiaki ABE ; Takeshi KANNNO ; Ko ONODERA ; Minoru OSAWA ; Kota ISHIZAWA ; Natsumi SAITO ; Tadashi ISHII
An Official Journal of the Japan Primary Care Association 2024;47(3):120-123
"Brain fog" is a symptom of long COVID. Brain fog is suspected to be a neurocognitive dysfunction; however, the underlying pathology remains to be elucidated. To provide better medical care for patients with "brain fog", we collaborated with a hospital outpatient department that specializes in the assessment and treatment of cognitive impairment. For the establishment of the collaborative system, we devised a questionnaire for "brain fog" based on medical reports, internet resources, and clinical experiments to be used as a screening tool. The questionnaire was used to calculate a "brain fog score" (BFS). A BFS of more than 5 points was established as the criterion for patient referral. The present retrospective evaluation suggests that BFS is useful for predicting prognosis and prioritizing patients within limited outpatient appointment slots.