Long COVID is a condition where symptoms of the original disease are still present, at least four weeks after the original onset. Typical signs may include fatigue, chest tightness, brain fog, loss of smell and taste, depression, or digestive issues. Medical News and Life Sciences reviewed research investigating a link between pre-psychological distress, and long COVID syndrome.
Link between Pre-Psychological Distress and Long COVID
Psychological distress refers to unpleasant emotions, or feelings a person experiences when feeling overwhelmed. Conditions that can severely affect their daily life activities include anxiety, depression, loneliness, worry, and subjective stress.
A team under guidance of Siwen Wang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Clarkson University investigated a possible link. They selected participants from three existing longitudinal studies tracing progress of patients with COVID-19 syndrome.
They asked these subjects to complete quarterly questionnaires from August 2020 through to November 2021. After that, they published their evidence of a link between pre-psychological distress and Long COVID in Jama Network. See the hyperlink below for their complete report.
More About the Study and Their Methodology
The researchers aimed to discount, or prove a relationship between pre-psychological distress and long COVID, by monitoring those patients for frequency of anxiety and depressive symptoms. But they also monitored them for worry about COVID-19 generally. Then they separated them into two sub groups. These were healthcare, and non-healthcare workers.
The team ended the monitoring phase after 16 months, and analyzed their data. They then compared the feedback between those who reported Long COVID, compared to those who did not. But first, they factored in:
- Socio-demographic factors for example age, gender, education, and profession
- Types of psychological distress that participants reported at the start of the study
- The chances of their initial COVID condition developing into Long COVID
The researchers confirmed a strong association between pre-COVID-19 psychological distress, and the risk of Long COVID. However, they discounted the likelihood of a psychosomatic connection, because 40% of those affected did not have pre-psychological distress. A psychosomatic condition is one where mental stressors are the primary cause of a physical disorder.
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