BPS attempts at psychologizing Long Covid

A Swedish news article about the "increased risk of psychosis after covid infection".

Ökad risk för psykos efter covidinfektion
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/uppsala/okad-risk-for-psykos-efter-covidinfektion

 

Then its not insanity. The results are prestige, money and influence, therefore its a success. Truth, science, medicine and the public good are the costs. When this current wave of nonsense passes they will try what has always been done so far, reinvent their claims and argue that the new interpretation has not been disproved and here are a thousand reasons why they are right this time ...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...demic-has-created-a-market-for-gloom-and-doom

 

Professors cracks under cognitive dissonance, flees into a fantasy world where long covid is not a big deal.

 

I don't really see why a computational infectious disease epidemiologist would have any special insight into whether long covid is psychosomatic

 

Children, famously known for closely following the news. Amazing how a major public health crisis can be dismissed so easily, with zero thought.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1424573498454851593

 

The insurance industry war against Long Covid has officially begun. No doubt we'd see familiar names behind this, if they didn't cower in the shadows.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1424916565305217027

https://twitter.com/user/status/1424919362394279939

 

The hypothesis that a mild upper respiratory tract infection - even if caused by a new virus - causes a chronic dementing illness in children is a sweeping, massive, frightening claim. It is unlikely to my mind, given what we know about mild upper respiratory tract infections …

Of all of the things I have ever read . . . there you have it. Clearly, unambiguously -- the heart of the issue around why the disbelief IMO . . .

a chronic dementing illness in children is a sweeping, massive, frightening claim.

FEAR. The idea this could be real terrifies them. So better it's not real then.

 

It's all projection. All of it. Every damn bit of it. Everything they say about us is a reflection of their own flaws. Every. Damn. Thing.

 

There has been literature readily available about ME and enteroviruses since the 1950s including the correlation to Coxsackie B and others. Not to mention polio which is a mild upper respiratory tract illness except when it isn't. Also people who never recovered from SARS, but they were all ignored.

That is what we know about mild upper respiratory tract illnesses so, no, it is not unlikely. If any money had been put into researching the biomedical diseases people and children get after these viruses then we would be in a much better place now we have thousands at risk. To be amazed and surprised and consider it unlikely is to show narrow mindedness.

You are right about fear as a motivation. I have been sick since I was 14 though I was lucky to deteriorate slowly and I am terrified my children or grandchildren would get ME. Brushing it under the carpet or deciding that only the weak willed or bad parents get the disease is so much more comforting.

 

Yes, I found that quote rather more revealing than perhaps it was meant to be.

It puts me in mind of the Polio epidemic in children. That was terrifying. For parents, for children and for the medics who cared for them. I imagine that the idea that some other illness could happen along those lines is not to be considered by the faint of heart. There are some differences in the two illnesses of course also.

Never have I ever before realised what delicate flowers some medical professionals are that they need to retreat into a happy world of delusion as a defence against a reality. I only ever considered the cynics who chose to use medicine as metaphor and became parasites having a weakness for glory over the common good.

 

https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/featu...-app-boost-mental-health-covid-19-longhaulers

No doubt there's an unblinded trial with subjective outcomes on the way.

 

One sometimes gets the feeling that there are people in universities who do not have a very good eye, or ear, for language. They do not indicate how, or where, the digit is to be be utilised for maximum effect.

 

Unfortunate guest essay.
Doesn’t acknowledge MECFS
Implies there is treatment.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/opinion/long-covid-treatment.html?referringSource=articleShare

This article and the subsequent posts have been moved from a separate thread.

 

The Truth About Long Covid Is Complicated. Better Treatment Isn’t.

By Adam Gaffney and Zackary Berger
...

Yet when the term “long Covid” is used by the public, it can mean something quite different from damage inflicted by critical illness or the persistence of Covid symptoms.

Most people are instead referring to a chronic illness following a mild infection with a complex of multiple symptoms, including brain fog, severe fatigue, chronic pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, gastrointestinal symptoms and much more. But the link between SARS-CoV-2 and this syndrome is complicated and not entirely clear.

One peer-reviewed study of people who reported long Covid symptoms noted that most of those who were tested for antibodies that provide evidence of a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection had negative results. The level of symptoms, moreover, was virtually the same whether the person was positive or negative for antibodies. A second study, not peer reviewed, of adults referred for long Covid management similarly reported that no Covid antibodies were found in 61 percent of them, again without differences in symptoms whether testing was positive or negative.

Antibody testing has some level of false negatives, and antibody levels can wane; however, most people with aprior infection have antibodies for some time, so such testing remains informative overall.

Another non-peer-reviewed studyfound that the rates of adolescents reporting symptoms such as fatigue and memory loss that are often attributed to long Covid were the same among those who had a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and those who had not been infected, as ascertained by antibody testing.

This suggests that the syndrome may have multiple causes, even within a single person. Psychosocial strain could be one contributing factor, particularly in light of the sharp increase in psychological distress amid the tragedy of the pandemic.


Yet in many ways, the precise cause of these symptoms doesn’t matter. We need to make our schools and workplaces safe and to take other public health measures to contain viral spread and buy time to vaccinate the population. That is true regardless of the nature of the connection between SARS-CoV-2 and this form of long Covid.

The causes of these illnesses do matter when it comes to treatment. For instance, if we understand this form of long Covid as a complex chronic illness, a biopharmaceutical solution is unlikely, and there may be no single cure. Rather, over time, a compassionate, humanistic team of professionals from multiple disciplines, including rehabilitation, can validate patients’ experiences and collaborate with them to improve their health in incremental yet significant ways.

No matter what the underlying cause and whether there is evidence of prior infection, long Covid, even among those with little or no evidence of previous infection, brings significant suffering, including several reported deaths by suicide. Action and not just acknowledgment is needed.

We must move beyond a false mind-body dichotomy that stigmatizes physical symptoms that are bound up with mental suffering. We need more support for the vulnerable and those lacking basic needs, so often those most harmed by chronic illness. This makes the need for universal health care even more urgent to ensure care for all with equal consideration of mental health.

Addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and long Covid itself requires not just containing the outbreak but also providing adequate social supports and medical care for all. The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be undone, but we can take steps to mitigate its impact — and to make our health care system a better one in its wake.

...

Dr. Adam Gaffney is an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. @@awgaffney

Dr. Zackary Berger is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. @@DrZackaryBerger

 

This is an utterly disgraceful piece.

It implies folks need a shrink. This is an utterly disgraceful piece. Note that they are even suggesting that some folks who have Long Covid never had covid! It's all in their head because the pandemic was a stressful time. This is gaslighting. The same sort of thing done in the 1990s for ME. The New York Times has often published disgraceful pieces, sadly.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1428178671739736066


Sorry/not sorry.

 

The authors seem to have figured it all out. They think they know the cause (psychological distress) and treatment (rehabilitation).

They write:

"if we understand this form of long Covid as a complex chronic illness, a biopharmaceutical solution is unlikely, and there may be no single cure. Rather, over time, a compassionate, humanistic team of professionals from multiple disciplines, including rehabilitation, can validate patients’ experiences and collaborate with them to improve their health in incremental yet significant ways."

"We must move beyond a false mind-body dichotomy that stigmatizes physical symptoms that are bound up with mental suffering"
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