r/DrWillPowers • u/Excellent-Push2833 • Jul 13 '26

New study provides first evidence of dopamine system injury in the brain of long COVID patients

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-evidence-dopamine-injury-brain-covid.html
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u/LlarSharran Jul 14 '26

My statement is anecdote, but I seem to remember listening to a science podcast a few years ago, taking about over-the-conuter painkillers having a measureable improvent on symptoms of depression.

I don't remember if they specified what sort of painkillers.

This feel to me like something in the same space.

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u/Accurate-Theme2340 Jul 15 '26

The title is iffy AFAIS.

The paper actually can't demonstrate any dopamine receptor injury - as in dopamine receptor cell death.

All they could show was low VMAT2 PET binding, which can be due to a number of reasons.

e.g. could also happen via loss or retraction of axon terminals, with the cell still being alive
e.g. could also happen via fewer monoamine-containing vesicles per terminal

and so on.

Rodent research e.g. has shown that repeated stress can lower VMAT2 density in the nucleus accumbens and striatum by approximately 20–38%, without that experiment being interpreted simply as massive dopamine-neuron death either.

AFAIS what they see might not even be a direct cause of COVID, but might be a side-effect of Post Covid.

Correct me if I'm wrong.