#7. Discovering new treatments for Brain Fog with Yale M.D. Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh

Make Visible: Understanding Complex Illness

Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh is a behavioural neurologist and a neuropscychiatrist whose primary focus has been treating patients with cognitive deficits – from Alzheimer’s to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Since 2020 a considerable portion of his clinic at Yale Medicine have been Long Covid patients and he noticed similarities in symptoms with post-concussive syndrome and other neuroinflammatory conditions.

Working with Professor Amy Arnsten (and referenced in our previous episode), Dr Fesharaki-Zadeh has developed a treatment regimen using Guanfacine and N-acetylcysteine that he found to be effective in improving prefrontal cortical function in TBI. Taking their knowledge from these patients and applying it to the treatment of the brain fog experienced by Long Covid patients, Fesharaki-Zadeh started using the same protocol and anecdotally it has had considerable impact in improving cognitive symptoms, emotional regulation, and even sleep.

Dr Fesharaki-Zadeh is pursing more empirical evidence, pushing for clinical trials to look at this treatment protocol. His rationale for the treatment of cognitive deficits in Long Covid seems sensible and his proposed strategy is proven safe.

This conversation discusses the need for validating patients’ experiences by providing physiological understanding of their symptoms, the importance of expanding access to effective treatments for Long Covid and other conditions, and emphasizes the dynamic and interactive nature of the brain and the importance of considering it as part of the whole network rather than an isolated entity.

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