Introduction: post-COVID-19 syndrome is a condition that remains poorly understood
currently, and among its most prevalent symptoms are neuropsychiatric alterations such as
memory deficits, concentration impairments and anxiety. Objective: the aim of this study was
to assess the relationships between memory impairment and anxiety in patients with
post-COVID-19 syndrome, describing the symptom prevalence, associated risk factors, and
comparing demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients. Methods: this is a
cross-sectional study with an analytical-explanatory approach. Clinical follow-up was
conducted from 2022 to 2023 on patients treated at the Tropical Medicine Center, affiliated
with the Federal University of Pará, who had recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. The
Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Consortium to Establish a Registry for
Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) word list, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale were used. Fisher's
exact test and chi-square test were used for qualitative variable analysis, and the Student's
t-test or Mann-Whitney test was used for quantitative variable comparison, with significance
set at p<0.05. Simple Logistic Regression was performed to identify variables independently
associated with cognitive deficits and with the Kappa test. Results: data from 81 patients
were analyzed, with a mean age of 54.65 (±12.23) years, of which 58 had some form of
comorbidity. It was identified that 62 (76,54%) had complaints of memory and concentration
deficits. When the CERAD was performed, it was observed that only 10 (12.34%) showed
alterations in immediate and/or delayed memory. According to the Hamilton scale, 58
(71.60%) had a considerable degree of anxiety. There was no relationship between the degree
of anxiety and the memory alteration identified by CERAD and/or MMSE. A relationship
between memory deficit complaints and the degree of anxiety was observed. There was a
significant relationship between memory impairment and the presence of comorbidities,
including systemic arterial hypertension (odds 5.47 and p-value 0.04), alteration in the
glycemic profile (odds 4.59 and p-value 0.039) and obesity (odds 7.18 and p-value 0.022) had
a significant p-value. Conclusion: the research showed that, in the context of the post-covid
syndrome, the memory alteration complaint is common in anxious patients, however, 87,66%
of the sample did not attest memory alteration. When memory impairment was associated
with comorbidities, an unfavorable impact on the process of neurological recovery of
cognitive functions was demonstrated. Furthermore, no significant relationship was observed
between age and education in the studied group with such alterations.
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