Long-COVID from the perspective of neurologists at the outpatient clinic: A cross-sectional field study.

Abstract

Objectives: Approximately 25% of individuals experience various symptoms months after the COVID-19 infection and are referred to as having Long-COVID syndrome. The primary objective of this study was to identify the pattern of neuropsychiatric symptoms and their influence on psychological health, sleep quality, and overall well-being.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, Long-COVID patients reported on their symptoms by using a predefined list. The symptom patterns were examined using cluster analysis. The clustering groups were compared based on psychological health, sleep, and well-being scores obtained from structured questionnaires.

Results: There were 40 females and 13 males, with a mean age of 54.1 ± 12.2 years. The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue (94.3%), followed by anxiety (79.2%), myalgias (75.5%), and concentration difficulties (71.7%). Clustering analysis revealed two clusters separated by the number of cognitive, psychiatric, general neurologic, and somatic symptoms (i.e. high and low number). Patients within the high number cluster reported significantly more symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and worse quality of sleep than the low number cluster. Overall, 32 patients (60.4%) were found to have poor well-being. Reporting more than 17 symptoms (58.6% of patients) predicted poor well-being with a sensitivity of 37.5% and specificity of 95.2% (p = 0.011).

Discussion: In this study, Long-COVID patients presenting at the outpatient neurologic clinic were clustered based on the number of symptoms instead of the nature of these symptoms. A higher number of symptoms were associated with poorer psychological health, sleep quality, and overall well-being.