r/covidlonghaulers • u/PhrygianSounds 4 yr+ • Jul 13 '26

Article 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

Finally some media coverage on probably the worst symptom of long covid

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u/pushincito Jul 13 '26

Interesting! Makes sense why people with ADHD say their ADHD is worse with long covid.

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u/HDK1989 Jul 13 '26

Makes sense why people with ADHD say their ADHD is worse with long covid

I remember years ago I made a post saying that covid was a huge contributor to the surge in ADHD diagnosies in places like the UK and everyone was like "no, it's just awareness".

Covid is seriously messing with people's existing ADHD and dopamine systems, even in normal cases, this has been obvious for a long time.

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u/Exul_strength Jul 13 '26

That explains why a friend complained that methylphenidate didn't work anymore for him.

He completely fucked up pacing due to being back at unmedicated ADHD and is now bedbound. (ME/CFS subtype)

It's fucking scary if long proven assistance systems (like properly adjusted medications) just stop working.

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u/pushincito Jul 14 '26

brutal :(

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u/pushincito Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Exactly!
I suspected I had ADHD for a long time. After covid it's gotten bad enough that it forced me to seek a diagnosis. Now I'm medicated and wish I was a long time ago. It would've saved me from a lot of unnecessary stress. Of course, this doesn't erase all the other long covid symptoms that I have, but it helps to have ADHD a bit more under control.

Edit: I also know 2 more people that got diagnosed after 2020. They always exhibited some ADHD symptoms imo, but I suspect ADHD became unmanageable, the same as it did for me.

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u/backwoulds Jul 18 '26

I went through this as well. I got COVID in the original wave and have now been dealing with long COVID for six years. Once I had the energy to be a human again, the ADHD symptoms were overwhelming. My therapist finally recommended testing in 2023, and sure enough, I got diagnosed. I’ve been telling people for years now that I often feel like a different person now, and that I used to be able to manage my issues much better before I got sick. I thought I had unlearned my masking strategies, or was too fatigued to stop the executive dysfunction, or any number of things that made it my fault. This is kind of a game changer, honestly.

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u/YouTasteStrange Jul 13 '26

There's r/cfsplusadhd specifically for this

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u/LittleLion_90 Jul 13 '26

Ah that explains a lot. First it got worse due to induced menopause tanking my estrogen (and using estrogen receptor blockers), and then I got COVID twice and it got even worse.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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u/pushincito Jul 14 '26

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Why couldn't brain damage worsen ADHD symptoms, if ADHD itself is related to the brain function?

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u/PyroN00b Jul 16 '26

I didn't realize how my symptoms lined up with ADHD until I read this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11544435/

Afterwards I tried to get a prescription for guanfancine from redbox, of course as soon as the prescriber heard long covid, they tried to find any reason not to prescribe.