A new study has found that children hospitalized due to COVID-19 saw an increase in headaches and mental disorders.

A brief study was conducted by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine of America, which included 1,493 children under the age of 18 who were hospitalized due to the novel coronavirus infection between January 2020 and April 2021.

The most prevalent neurologic symptoms were headache and impaired mental status, which is known as acute encephalopathy. These preliminary findings, published in Pediatric Neurology, are the first from the pediatric arm of GCS-NeuroCOVID, a multinational, multi-center partnership aimed at understanding how COVID-19 affects the brain and nervous system.

Researchers found 44% of children who were hospitalized as a result of the fatal illness now have neurological issues.

This study included 30 pediatric critical care centers from around the world that treated 1,493 children. Doctors identified 86% (1,278) of the total patient population with acute SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, another 14% (215) of children developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). Organ malfunction, a fever, and inflammation characterize MIS-C, which commonly appears weeks after recovering from COVID-19.

Seizures were the third most prevalent neurological symptom among children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, after altered mental state and headaches. It's worth noting that neurological symptoms were more common in pediatric MIS-C patients than in those with acute COVID-19. Similarly, children with MIS-C had a higher likelihood of developing at least two neurological symptoms.

Other documented symptoms across both groups include stroke, loss of smell, psychosis, and vision problems, albeit these are far more uncommon.

The authors of the study have already begun work on a follow-up study to investigate the long-term impact of both MIS-C and COVID-19 on recovered children.

The researchers have just started a follow-up study to see if acute SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C infections, with or without neurologic manifestations, have long-term impacts on children's health and quality of life after they leave the hospital.

"Another long-term goal of this study is to build a database that tracks neurological manifestations over time-;not just for SARS-CoV-2, but for other types of infections as well," lead study author Dr. Ericka Fink said. "Some countries have excellent databases that allow them to easily track and compare children who are hospitalized, but we don't have such a resource in the U.S."

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer's COVID shots for 12- to 15-year-olds on May 10 and 5- to 11-year-olds on Oct. 29, providing some protection against Omicron to a huge number of those children.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 55% of children aged 12 to 17 and 19% of children aged 5 to 11 are now fully vaccinated.