Association between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Neuropsychiatric Manifestations

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

My reviews are in the file attached

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors reviewed the prospective neuropsychiatric follow-up of individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 at different points in their lives, as well as their neuroimmunological status. Although the aim may be of interest, I have several concerns as follows:

1. I searched the review on COVID-19 and psychiatric manifestations, with the following search strategies: (COVID19 [title] or SARS-CoV-2[title]) and (psychiatric[title] or psychiatry[title] or neuropsychiatric[title]) Filters: Review. A total of 98 reviews were searched with the inception of July 26th, 2022, and some of reviews have similar or the same topic as yours. And I was wonder the originality of this review, and what your research added value to current findings?

2. A lot of researches have performed neuroimaging examinations (e.g., MRI, EEG) on COVID-19 infectors, and found the brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19 were associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Take an MRI research using 785 participants of UK Biobank for example, they found that these mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease through olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia (ref: Douaud, et al., SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank. Nature. 2022 Apr;604(7907):697-707.) As far as I am concerned, evidence of neuroimaging examinations on COVID-19 infectors was recommended to added in the study.

3. The author listed a lot of evidence of neuropsychiatric manifestations secondary to covid-19 infection. I am not sure whether the title should be revised as “Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and neuropsychiatric manifestations”, since the main body of this study was “neuropsychiatric manifestations” but not merely “psychiatric manifestations”.

4. The authors have mentioned the chronic psychiatric conditions in COVID-19 infectors. A meta- analysis of long term physical and mental sequelae of COVID-19 pandemic showed the prevalence psychiatric symptoms was 19.7% (95% CI 16.1-23.6), mainly depression (18.3%, 95% CI 13.3-23.8) and PTSD (17.9%, 95% CI 11.6-25.3). I think this meta-analysis, as well as the included studies in this meta-analysis were suitable to be mentioned in this review. (ref: Zeng, et al., A systematic review and meta-analysis of long term physical and mental sequelae of COVID-19 pandemic: call for research priority and action. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 6:1–11.)

5. A call for more action on psychiatric manifestations was recommend to added in the Conclusion Part.

6. The figures in this study were created in Biorender.com; however, I also noticed these figures were not suitable for publication yet. I suspect the authors should make sure of it.

7. Some minor mistakes: “SPTD” may be revised as “PTSD” (line 514).

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The quality of the manuscript has been substantially improved after revision.