Cognition in Chagas disease: A systematic review

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i9.17549

Keywords:

Cognition; Chagas disease; Executive function; Systematic review; Memory disorders.

Abstract

Chagas disease (CD) is transmitted by the hemoflagellate parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and manifests itself acutely and chronically, when it is characterized as indeterminate, cardiac, digestive or mixed. Some patients with Chagas' disease (CD) have cognitive alterations and there are three hypotheses about cognitive damage: (I) neurological and cognitive alterations caused by the cardiac form, (II) after the acute form there is the spontaneous disappearance of the clinical signs of disease with cognitive manifestations remaining, (III) cognitive and neurological manifestations are caused by chronic infection. The aim of the present study was to carry out a systematic review of the literature to verify measurable cognitive impairments in Chagas patients. The articles were searched in the Pubmed and Embase databases, with the descriptors "Chagas disease" and "cognition". All articles with assessment of cognitive aspects of patients with CD were included. One hundred and ninety-seven articles were found, three of which met the criteria. All articles demonstrate cognitive impairments related to CD, in a chronic form, with impairment of both general intelligence and long-term memory, in addition to a deficit in the execution time of the tests.

Author Biography

Felipe Viegas Rodrigues, Universidade do Oeste Paulista

Felipe Viegas Rodrigues is a cognitive neuroscientist, professor of Physiology and Neuropsychology at University of Western São Paulo (Unoeste). His principal interests relate to the attention phenomena, especially the asymmetry of the attention orienting, and Psychophysics is the method of choice in the lab. He also investigates attentional changes linked to the development of specific skills (such as formal music training) and the impairments related to mental disorders. Additional research is concerned with Music Cognition, as Felipe is also a musician. He holds a D.Sc. degree in Physiology from the University of São Paulo (USP) and is a biologist from unesp/Botucatu. Felipe use to play drums whenever his attention is distracted from research and solely conducts data analysis to the sound of good music.

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Published

20/07/2021

How to Cite

SANTOS, N. L. dos .; REIS, L. R. dos; RODRIGUES, F. V. Cognition in Chagas disease: A systematic review. Research, Society and Development, [S. l.], v. 10, n. 9, p. e3710917549, 2021. DOI: 10.33448/rsd-v10i9.17549. Disponível em: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/17549. Acesso em: 5 jun. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 9

Section

Review Article

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Copyright (c) 2021 Natalia Ligabô dos Santos; Laysa Rodrigues dos Reis; Felipe Viegas Rodrigues

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