Mental Health Matters | Covid 19 studies
Research presented at the 2020 ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID), shows that persistent fatigue occurs in more than half of patients recovered from COVID-19, regardless of the seriousness of their infection.
"Fatigue is a common symptom in those presenting with symptomatic COVID-19 infection. Whilst the presenting features of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been well-characterized, the medium- and long-term consequences of infection remain unexplored," explained study lead author Dr Liam Townsend, St James's Hospital and Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
The study used a commonly used scale to determine fatigue in recovered patients, called the Chalder Fatigue Score (CFQ-11). They also looked at the severity of the patient's initial infection (need for admission and critical/intensive care); their pre-existing conditions, including depression; and various markers of immune activation (white cell counts, C-reactive protein, Interluekin-6, and sCD25).
The study included 128 participants (mean age 50 years; 54% female) who were recruited consecutively at a median of 10 weeks following clinical recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection. More than half reported persistent fatigue (52.3%; 67/128) at this point.
Of the patients assessed in this study, 71/128 (55.5%) were admitted to hospital and 57/128 (44.5%) were not admitted. "Fatigue was found to occur independent of admission to hospital, affecting both groups equally," explained Townsend.
There was no association between COVID-19 severity (need for inpatient admission, supplemental oxygen, or critical care) and fatigue following COVID-19. Additionally, there was no association between routine laboratory markers of inflammation and cell turnover (white blood cell counts or ratios, lactate dehydrogenase, or C-reactive protein) or pro-inflammatory molecules (IL-6 or sCD25) and fatigue after COVID-19.
Female gender and those with a pre-existing diagnosis of depression/anxiety were over-represented in those with fatigue.
Although women represented just over half of the patients in the study (54%), two thirds of those with persistent fatigue (67%) were women.
This article originally appeared on Univadis.com.
