Dissecting the association between long COVID and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative population from France 2024 Lemogne et al

Highlights

• 1253 participants infected with SARS-CoV-2 from a nationally representative sample.
• Among those with long COVID (i.e., 7.6 %), 44.5 % had a PHQ-9 score ≥ 10 versus 11.1 % of those without.
• Three PHQ-9 items out of nine were independently associated with long COVID.
• These items were little interest or pleasure, fatigue, and trouble concentrating.
• Symptoms of major depression may substantially overlap with those of long COVID.

Abstract

Objective
Depressive symptoms may overlap with those of long COVID. This cross-sectional study aims to compare the prevalence of depressive symptoms among individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 with versus without long COVID and to explore specific associations with each of the nine core symptoms of major depression.

Methods
Data regarding age, gender, SARS-CoV-2 infections, current symptoms, their date of onset, impact on daily functioning, and consideration of alternative diagnoses were collected through phone interviews between September and December 2022 in a nationally representative sample of adults aged ≥18. Data on chronic health conditions and depressive symptoms (PHQ-9) were collected online in infected participants with or without long COVID, according to the WHO definition of the post-COVID-19 condition.

Results
Among 1247 participants (mean age (SD): 48.3 (14.3) years, 53.3 % of women), 12.8 % had long COVID and 87.2 % experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection at least 3 months prior to the survey without long COVID. Participant with long COVID were four-fold more likely to have a PHQ-9 score ≥ 10 than those without (44.0 % versus 11.1 %). Three symptoms out of nine were independently associated with long COVID: little interest or pleasure (aOR [95 % CI]: 2.01 [1.03–3.92]), feeling tired or having little energy (1.92 [1.10–3.33]), and poor attention/concentration (2.02 [1.03–3.96]).

Conclusion
Clinicians should screen patients with long COVID for major depression but associations with specific depressive symptoms suggest some clinical overlap. Future studies should consider the course of each depressive symptom separately and focus on those less prone to overlap with symptoms of long COVID.

Open access, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399924003738

 

Exactly why it's overused. It's easy to understand how asking overlapping questions will give overlapping answers, especially when all the questions are non-specific and as generic and loaded as can be. This is why most WebMD searches lead to cancer, and why resources like this are dismissed as useless by MDs. But here the same process gives them answers they want, and they are OK with it. In fact they do it precisely for this reason. They're fine with a process that gives wrong answers, as long as they are the answers they want. This has been proven beyond any possible doubt. It's not the process they object, it's when it gives answers they believe are wrong. Because none of this is scientific and they do what they want.

It doesn't even make sense to use major depression, all they're getting is some weak signals that are rationally explained by prolonged illness. But they dispute that, so they reinterpret reality as they prefer. And another major mistake they make in the conclusion is to speak of specific depressive symptoms, while all the 'symptoms' of depression in PHQ-9 are generic and non-specific, especially with the way they are phrased. But again they are all OK with a broken process because this is the answer they seek and expect.

Look at this garbage:

By the standard definitions of medicine, depression and anxiety are not diseases. They are syndromes, and even then there are so many issues with how anxiety, which is excessively worrying about bad outcomes, has been completely redefined, just like depression, as having non-specific symptoms where worrying is actually not even relevant. Hence the made-up diagnosis of generalized anxiety, which is likely just a flawed generic label for real problems that get misinterpreted on purpose.

Studies like this are a great example of how questions, and how they are asked, are far more important than answers. But this is a human problem, of intent and motivation. Everyone involved in this is aware of this, they just choose to overlook flaws they would reflexively dismiss in studies that contradict their expectations.

And this is the important part, why they do studies like this, to perpetuate the failed model that has never worked, has been used on day one on LC, including in France, but here they pretend like it's some novel insight that no one has tried before:

Just clownish speculation all-around. Lemogne has long been a vocal denier of Long Covid, so this is all done on purpose. Medicine has almost completely lost its way. Not completely, but damn is it getting closer with time.