Long COVID: Clinical features and multidisciplinary approach

Abstract

Although most of the patients affected by COVID-19 recover their health and return to their previous situation, some of them present symptoms that can last a long time after the acute illness. The main objective of this study is to assess the correlation between symptoms of long COVID and symptoms of central sensitization. Secondarily, it will try to describe the symptoms of long COVID and its correlation with alexithymia and depression.

Methods

Prospective observational study in real clinical conditions. Include consecutively those patients who present long COVID and complete multidisciplinary evaluation by a somatic specialist and a psychiatrist, together with a battery of questionnaires.

Results

The profile we found corresponds to a woman, in the middle of her fifth decade of life, with higher education and working, who passed the SARS-CoV-2 infection 1 year earlier, without requiring hospitalization and with a severe depressive disorder and alexithymia. We found an intermediate correlation (rho .665; p < .01) between central sensitization questionnaire and the sum of symptoms of long COVID, as well as between the sum of symptoms presented and depression (rho .467; p < .01) and not between the sum of symptoms and alexithymia (rho .151; p = .359).

Conclusions

Sensitization phenomena seem to be of notable importance in the symptoms of long COVID and present a symptomatic constellation characterized by fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems. Patients with persistent COVID present more severe depressive symptoms than they are capable of perceiving o express.