Article: New clinical trial aims to improve diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of long COVID

[Sly Saint]

A major new consortium involving the University of Exeter, has been awarded £6.8 million by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to conduct the largest clinical study of long COVID over the next two years.

As countries around the world struggle to cope and recover from successive waves of the pandemic, the research programme will inform medium- and longer-term policy and health system responses.

The consortium is led by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) and University College London, made up of more than 30 researchers, health professionals, patients and industry partners from over 30 organisations working together under the banner of STIMULATE-ICP (Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-COVID to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways).

Dr Strain, of the University of Exeter, is one of the trial leads. He said: “Long covid is incredibly distressing and debilitating, and we still know relatively little about how to treat and support people who experience it. Currently we are drawing from experience in other disease areas such as ME and Chronic fatigue syndrome, however the evidence base here is far from complete. This study will give us answers on the best treatment options, which could be swiftly rolled out in clinics.”

https://www.miragenews.com/new-clinical-trial-aims-to-improve-diagnosis-597717/

 

[DokaGirl]

Excellent news and hope for pwLC.

I hope that ME is not bypassed by these and other researchers

 

[Barry]

I hope that ME is not bypassed by these and other researchers

I suspect that as Dr. David Strain is one of the researchers heading this up, there is hopefully a good chance that ME/CFS will be factored in ...

https://www.actionforme.org.uk/news/dr-david-strain-on-m.e.-and-long-term-impact-of-long-covid/

 

[DokaGirl]

Thanks @Barry
This is quite hopeful.

 

[dreampop]

Seems pretty sketchy.....the living with "recovery program" is a hodgpodge of online advice with the goal grinding through as many patients as possible.

The rehabilitation tool targets primary symptoms that ‘long-haulers’ report experiencing for many weeks and even months after the peak of their infection – such as fatigue, anxiety and breathing problems. It combines evidence-based methods from physiotherapists, psychologists, dieticians and respiratory physicians to create bespoke treatment plans for each patient.

Then either concurrently in a seperate trial or amongst the existing trial will be the drug testing, it's a bit unclear from the wording.

Within this research programme, another trial will test different drugs, such as aspirin and colchicine, to measure effects of three months treatment on symptoms, mental health, return to work and other important outcomes.

I hope the authors have some airtight methodology planned because there are a lot of moving parts here. Colchicine was another drug at the Stanford clinic a few years back but I guess interest in that died out.

 

[rvallee]

Framing this as "rehabilitation" is especially problematic considering this is what has been tried for the past damn year, entirely wasted expecting it to work so strongly nobody cares that it clearly doesn't. It's literally why research is needed, because of a useless "rehabilitation" paradigm that doesn't even care if there's anything to "rehabilitate", it just plows on and on mindlessly.

We know for a fact this is not relevant. It's an outcome, not a process. Ugh. This is so on brand, "good news" that are actually bad news but it's hard to make it obvious without sounding defeatist except we know how this plays out, it's always the same damn circular failure.