Long-COVID from the perspective of neurologists at the outpatient clinic: A cross-sectional field study, 2025, Artemiadis et al

Long-COVID from the perspective of neurologists at the outpatient clinic: A cross-sectional field study

Artemios Artemiadis, Andreas G. Tofarides, Andreas Liampas, Christiana Ioannou, Katerina Christodoulou, Rafaela Louka, George Vavougios, Panagiotis Zis, Panagiotis Bargiotas, Georgios Hadjigeorgiou

Objectives
Approximately 25% of individuals experience various symptoms months after the COVID-19 infection and are referred to as having Long-COVID syndrome. The primary objective of this study was to identify the pattern of neuropsychiatric symptoms and their influence on psychological health, sleep quality, and overall well-being.

Methods
In this cross-sectional study, Long-COVID patients reported on their symptoms by using a predefined list. The symptom patterns were examined using cluster analysis. The clustering groups were compared based on psychological health, sleep, and well-being scores obtained from structured questionnaires.

Results
There were 40 females and 13 males, with a mean age of 54.1 ± 12.2 years. The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue (94.3%), followed by anxiety (79.2%), myalgias (75.5%), and concentration difficulties (71.7%). Clustering analysis revealed two clusters separated by the number of cognitive, psychiatric, general neurologic, and somatic symptoms (i.e. high and low number). Patients within the high number cluster reported significantly more symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and worse quality of sleep than the low number cluster. Overall, 32 patients (60.4%) were found to have poor well-being. Reporting more than 17 symptoms (58.6% of patients) predicted poor well-being with a sensitivity of 37.5% and specificity of 95.2% (p = 0.011).

Discussion
In this study, Long-COVID patients presenting at the outpatient neurologic clinic were clustered based on the number of symptoms instead of the nature of these symptoms. A higher number of symptoms were associated with poorer psychological health, sleep quality, and overall well-being.

Link (Neurological Research) [Paywall]

 

25% have LC symptoms after Covid, doesn't that sound way too high?
When I read the last sentence in reverse it makes more sense.
Overall well-being is influenced by poor sleep quality and poor sleep quality can lead to poorer psychological health.
When neuropsychiatric symptoms are the objective of the study using a predefined list of symptoms, just counting the number of symptoms is enough?

Paywalled and I'm not spending 60 euro's to find out more.