Direct and indirect neurological, cognitive and behavioral effects of COVID-19 on the normal elderly, Mild-Cognitive-Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease populations

This article reviews the main articles that have been published so far about the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a particularly fragile population represented by the healthy elderly people as well as those with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Such populations have been among the most affected in the early stages of the pandemic due to the direct effects of the virus and numerous indirect effects now emerge and will have to be carefully assessed over time. The pandemic associated to COVID-19 has shifted most of the health resources to the emergency area and has consequently left the three main medical areas that dealing with the elderly population (oncology, time-dependent diseases and degenerative disease) temporarily “uncovered”. In the phase following the emergency, it will be crucial to guarantee to each area the economic and organizational resources to quickly return to the level of support of the pre-pandemic state. The emergency phase represented an important moment of discussion on the possibilities of telemedicine which will inevitably become increasingly important but all the limits of its use in the elderly population have to be considered. In the post-lockdown recovery phase, alongside the classic medical evaluation, the psychological evaluation must become even more important for doctors caring about people with cognitive decline.