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Long COVID may be psychological: study
The report that appeared earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on nearly 27,000 participants across France who took antibody tests to screen for COVID-19 infection.
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Violaine Cousineau, 47, who suffers from long-term effects of Covid-19, poses at her home on February, 26, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. Difficulties breathing, walking, concentrating: five months after being diagnosed with Covid-19 illness, Canadian Violaine Cousineau -- like many others -- continues to suffer severe persistent symptoms that prevent her from resuming a normal life.
(AFP/ Anne-Sophie Thill)
A
large-scale French study suggesting symptoms of so-called long COVID may be more due to psychological factors than to infection with the virus has sparked debate among patients and scientists.
The report that appeared earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on nearly 27,000 participants across France who took antibody tests to screen for COVID-19 infection.
After the subjects had received the antibody test results, researchers asked them whether they believed they had been infected with COVID-19 and to report on symptoms like fatigue, breathlessness or impaired attention.
The vast majority of respondents -- over 25,000 people -- tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies and believed they had never been sick.
Of the some 1,000 who tested positive, about 450 believed they had contracted the virus.
Finally, about 460 people who received negative antibody tests said they nonetheless believed they had had COVID-19.
Researchers found that people who believed they had had COVID-19, whether or not they had had a positive test, were more likely to report long-term symptoms.
