ORLANDO, Fla. — A recent study published in the Lancet Psychiatry Journal is shedding new light on the relationship between COVID-19 patients and neurological and psychological conditions.

Jennifer Gillan, 44, lives in Orlando's Lake Nona's community with her husband and four children.

"When you have COVID, the confusion of what's happening to you and how it affects everyone around you, it's just new territory," she said.

Before the virus, Gillan described herself as a busy person who ran half-marathons, did pilates, yoga, coached her son in baseball and was a pediatric cancer advocate.

That nonstop life for the former nurse came to a screeching halt last September when she contracted COVID-19.

“How I think I got it was when I came in close contact with a dear friend. I was in my car. I wasn’t wearing my mask, but she was upset and sad, so I was trying to be there for her," she said.

“The first was just a tickle in the back of my throat," but Gillan said her symptoms quickly escalated.

“It was just mainly my head, and it just felt like it was melting inside, like it was so painful. I couldn’t even open my eyes. I couldn’t even see," she said.

From day one, Gillan has battled neurological problems.

The largest study of its kind recently published in the Lancet examined more than 200,000 COVID-19 patients. It found that 1 in 3 have a neurological or psychological condition within six months of infection.

“I was surprised. The numbers released in the Lancet study I think were much higher than anybody expected," Orlando Health Neurology Group Medical Director Dr. Christian Rosado said.

He said the study sheds new light on the scale of the problem, although he and his colleagues have been treating COVID-19 patients with neurological issues for months.

“Here at ORMC (Orlando Regional Medical Center) specifically, we have seen cases of strokes and encephalopathy that we feel did have a strong association to COVID," Rosado said.

He has seen patients with decreased levels of cautiousness, confusion, even coma. Doctors have also seen anxiety, insomnia, mental fog and memory dysfunction.

Rosado said research and awareness in this area need to be prioritized nationally and locally to better understand how to treat or manage it.

“It’s going to be important for us in the near future to really have resources available and plan on a leadership level how this care will be delivered," he said.

In Gillan's case, her doctors are still trying to find the best treatment.

“My first MRI, there were like 20 lesions on my brain, just all over," she said. "I have different abnormal values that don’t fit a disease profile."

She is hoping for more answers during an upcoming appointment at a COVID-19 "long-hauler" clinic in Lakeland. She's also taking part in a study with the National Institute of Health.

In the meantime, Gillan is focusing on nutrition and fitness.

She calls her pilates instructor in Lake Nona the backbone of her recovery.

“What we focused on is giving her the confidence and becoming body aware again," owner John Cavanaugh said.

Gillan is determined to get better and to helping others in similar shoes.

“I’m taking notes. And I’m going to share my experience and my information for people like me that need help finding their way," she said.

Rosado urges anyone who had COVID-19 and is having neurological or psychological symptoms to consult their primary care physician and a neurologist.