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How to Identify the Symptoms of Post COVID-19 Syndrome

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The disease caused by the new coronavirus manifests itself in different ways depending on the patient and can leave sequelae.

The COVID-19 pandemic generates, even today, uncertainties about the symptoms or the severity of the cases. Specialists emphasize that it is a disease that is still being known. 

Experts point out that:

COVID-19 disease can manifest itself in different ways in the long term, and is generally related to the severity of the acute condition

The specialist assured that:

Although the vast majority of patients have no symptoms once they have overcome the disease, there are patients who manifest persistence of some symptoms or the appearance of new ones. This is known as Post COVID-19 Syndrome

According to doctors, there are two groups of symptoms:

Physical symptoms of Post COVID-19 Syndrome:

  • Tiredness (15-87%)
  • Feeling of lack of air (10-71%)
  • Chest pain when breathing (12-44%)
  • Cough (17-34%)
  • Headache
  • Alteration in taste and smell
  • Muscle pain

Psychological and / or cognitive symptoms Post COVID-19 Syndrome:

  • Memory problems
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Anxiety and depression

Experts recommend that patients who have had COVID-19 must carry out the corresponding health checks and the professional will evaluate the recommendation to return to daily activities.

This April 2021 The Lancet Psychiatry published a study in which it analyzes the evolution of 236,379 post-COVID patients. They focused on 14 neurological and psychiatric conditions: stroke, Parkinson’s, autoimmune neuropathies such as Guillain-Barré, muscle or muscle nerve junction disease such as myasthenia, encephalitis, dementia, psychotic disorders, depression, fatigue, GAD, and insomnia. 34% of the patients had any of these conditions. In those hospitalized in ICU, the figures reached more than 50%. Two percent of the participants had 1 stroke.

The most common signs and symptoms that persist over time include:

  • Fatigue
  • Shortness of air when breathing
  • Cough
  • Joint pain
  • Chest discomfort

Other long-term signs and symptoms may include:

  • Pain in the muscles or headache
  • Tachycardia, palpitations
  • Do not recover the loss of smell or taste
  • Memory and concentration problems, particularly working memory
  • Sleep disorders
  • Dermatological problems such as rashes or hair loss

In the largest study of its kind, of about 237,000 coronavirus patients, a third were diagnosed with at least one of 14 psychiatric or neurological disorders in a span of 6 months.

If we look at patients who were hospitalized, that rate increased to 39% and then to just under 1 in 2 patients who required admission to the intensive care unit at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis

said Maxime Taquet, Researcher at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

The incidence increases to nearly two-thirds in patients with encephalopathy at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis, he added.

Clearly, the more commitment and severity of the picture, the more possibility of complicating itself with the Long COVID.

The study, which examined the brain health of 236,379 COVID-19 survivors through a US database of 81 million electronic medical records, was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

“Long-term COVID” could include several different syndromes. The long-lasting effects of COVID-19 can be different syndromes, according to a review by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

A team of researchers and physicians reviewed the current evidence and interviewed post-hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients and reported that prolonged COVID did not seem to fit as a syndrome. They suggested that people who experience long-term effects of Covid-19 may have different syndromes such as:

  • Post-intensive care syndrome
  • Post-viral fatigue syndrome
  • Long-term COVID syndrome.

According to experts, there is a wide range of recurring symptoms that patients experience, regardless of whether they were hospitalized, affecting the respiratory system, brain, cardiovascular system, and heart, kidneys, intestine, liver and skin. 

The report said that these symptoms vary in intensity and duration, and do not necessarily present in a linear or sequential fashion.

Image Credit: iStock

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