Brain Fog After COVID-19? Long COVID May Be the Cause

Aug 24, 2026

It’s been months since you recovered from but you’re still misplacing your keys or losing your train of thought mid-sentence.

If this sounds familiar, you may be experiencing post-COVID brain fog. More than 15 million Americans are living with long COVID symptoms, and brain fog is one of the most common. People can experience brain fog months—or even years—after infection.

University of Utah Health’s Long COVID Clinic has treated thousands of patients and continues to uncover new insights into this still-evolving conditions.

“The clinic opened in 2021 after doctors noticed that even people with mild COVID weren’t bouncing back,” says Jeanette Brown, MD, PhD, medical director of the U’s Long COVID Clinic.

What Does Long COVID Brain Fog Feel Like?

Brain fog is a cluster of symptoms that can affect people at any age. It’s especially common in adults in their 30s and 40s—often disrupting work, family responsibilities, and everyday life.

Common symptoms include:

Trouble finding the right words
Difficulty focusing or following conversations
Short-term memory lapses
Feeling mental “glitches” mid-task
Struggling to plan or sequence complex activities
Fatigue with minimal cognitive effort

Some people with long COVID also have symptoms linked to other conditions, including mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), where immune cells that help protect the body become overly reactive during infections. When this happens, people may experience heart fluctuations, migraines, stomach problems, exercise intolerance, and other debilitating symptoms.

Who Is More Likely to Develop Long COVID?

Anyone who gets infected by COVID-19 can develop long COVID. Research continues to explore why some people are more likely to experience lasting symptoms than others.

Factors associated with a higher risk may include:

Being female (about a 65%/35% female-to-male split)
Having a higher body mass index (BMI)
Certain genetic factors (research is ongoing)
Being middle-aged

Note: Staying up to date on vaccinations not only lowers your risk of getting COVID but also reduces your chances of developing long COVID.

Why Long COVID Can Be Hard to Diagnose

There isn’t one test that can tell you whether brain fog is caused by long COVID. Many of its symptoms mimic many other conditions.

It's important to speak with your doctor about your symptoms to rule out issues, which may include:

MCAS
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and other forms of nervous system disorders
Sleep disorders, including sleep apnea
Fatigue from anemia, vitamin deficiencies, or thyroid issues
Cardiac rhythm problems

Identifying other conditions matters because treating them may improve some of the symptoms a person is experiencing.

How Is Long COVID Brain Fog Treated?

There’s no single cure for long COVID brain fog, but several strategies can help boost your brain power and energy.

Rehabilitation and Therapy: Speech-language therapy can support those with cognitive challenges that affect language, memory, and processing.

Cognitive Support: Simple strategies can make everyday tasks easier when concentration and memory are a challenge. These may include:

To-do lists
Breaking large tasks into smaller steps
Reducing distractions
Practicing mindfulness
Asking about workplace or school accommodations

Medications: There is no medication approved specifically to treat long COVID brain fog. However, some patients benefit from medications used for POTS or MCAS. Researchers are also studying whether an antidepressant—fluvoxamine—may help with fatigue. However, it’s been found that ADHD stimulants often worsen symptoms and are used cautiously.

Pacing: Trying to push through exhaustion can make symptoms worse for people with long COVID. At the Long COVID Clinic, patients learn to spread out tasks and gradually resume their daily activities. This helps prevent over-exertion and the crashes that often follow.

Specialized Long COVID Care at University of Utah Health

Long COVID can affect more than one part of the body. That’s why treating it may require more than one type of health care provider.

The Long COVID Clinic at University of Utah Health brings different specialists together to care for adults with ongoing symptoms after COVID-19.

“We have a multidisciplinary team of providers working side by side to support every step of recovery,” Brown says.

Depending on a person’s symptoms, their care team may include specialists in:

Pulmonology
Neurology
Cardiology
Physical Therapy
Occupational therapy
Speech therapy
Behavior health and social work

The goal isn’t to give every patient the same treatment. Instead, the team looks at each person’s symptoms and builds a care plan around their needs.

For people who have spent months searching for answers, that coordinated approach can be an important step toward managing symptoms and getting back to the activities that matter to them.