Wyva
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Really long interview with Éva Rákóczi, head of the infectology-rheumatology department of the long covid clinic at the University of Debrecen (this was the first long covid clinic in Hungary). This was published on ElitMed, in the Hungarian-language Lege Artis Medicinae journal.
The introduction is pretty horrible, talking about organic and psychosomatic causes but that was actually the interviewer's doing and the interview itself is a bit more subtle.
Dr Rákóczi has of course a somewhat limited knowledge (no mention of ME/CFS or post-viral syndromes) and tries to explain everything based on what medicine already knows. So there is a lot of focus on organ damage etc but she also doesn't seem to push a very aggressive BPS agenda and says that we don't really know what long covid is, this is something that is currently being researched in the world. She does mention the overreaction of the immune system or that virus particle may persist etc.
The interviewer asked about the psychiatric issues a few times but she avoided saying anything directly about psychosomatic causes and started to talk about something else instead, however there are also some signs of BPS way of thinking.
She said things like "people with long covid can be under a lot of stress" and "many of them can benefit from a psychologist listening to their problems" and mentioned a patient who is suffering from serious depression caused by his current quality of life. On the other hand she also said something like "patients recover more quickly if they are properly faced with the illness", which may be BPS stuff. She also mentions that patients should be calmed down that at least they survived the infection and they shouldn't be sent to too many medical examinations.
The good part: she explicitly mentions POTS (calling it a strange condition), also postural hypotension, postural dizziness, autonomic dysfunction.
However, she keeps saying that she thinks the patients who don't come back are probably on the way to recovery. And we know how this may actually be far from the truth. She says that once they have calmed down after being examined, they become a bit more stress-free and accepting of their symptoms and feel less inclined to go back.
So to me it seems this is a mix of "somethings going on with the immune system" and "it helps a lot if the patients calm down and stop panicking over their symptoms".
She talks about taking things slowly and that people shouldn't return to intense physical activity (eg workouts) right away.
This is where it can be found, registration is necessary but it is free: https://elitmed.hu/kiadvanyaink/leg...is-rengeteg-long-covid-beteggel-kell-szamolni
The introduction is pretty horrible, talking about organic and psychosomatic causes but that was actually the interviewer's doing and the interview itself is a bit more subtle.
Dr Rákóczi has of course a somewhat limited knowledge (no mention of ME/CFS or post-viral syndromes) and tries to explain everything based on what medicine already knows. So there is a lot of focus on organ damage etc but she also doesn't seem to push a very aggressive BPS agenda and says that we don't really know what long covid is, this is something that is currently being researched in the world. She does mention the overreaction of the immune system or that virus particle may persist etc.
The interviewer asked about the psychiatric issues a few times but she avoided saying anything directly about psychosomatic causes and started to talk about something else instead, however there are also some signs of BPS way of thinking.
She said things like "people with long covid can be under a lot of stress" and "many of them can benefit from a psychologist listening to their problems" and mentioned a patient who is suffering from serious depression caused by his current quality of life. On the other hand she also said something like "patients recover more quickly if they are properly faced with the illness", which may be BPS stuff. She also mentions that patients should be calmed down that at least they survived the infection and they shouldn't be sent to too many medical examinations.
The good part: she explicitly mentions POTS (calling it a strange condition), also postural hypotension, postural dizziness, autonomic dysfunction.
However, she keeps saying that she thinks the patients who don't come back are probably on the way to recovery. And we know how this may actually be far from the truth. She says that once they have calmed down after being examined, they become a bit more stress-free and accepting of their symptoms and feel less inclined to go back.
So to me it seems this is a mix of "somethings going on with the immune system" and "it helps a lot if the patients calm down and stop panicking over their symptoms".
She talks about taking things slowly and that people shouldn't return to intense physical activity (eg workouts) right away.
This is where it can be found, registration is necessary but it is free: https://elitmed.hu/kiadvanyaink/leg...is-rengeteg-long-covid-beteggel-kell-szamolni