Outcomes in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) at 6 months post-infection part 2: Psychological functioning, 2022, Whiteside et al

Abstract

Objective:
Limited research investigating the long-term psychological and emotional correlates of COVID-19 infection has been completed. The current study begins to address this limitation in patients experiencing Post-Acute Sequelae SARS-CoV-2 (PASC; e.g. “Long COVID”).

Participants and methods:
Participants were 43 consecutive neuropsychological outpatients diagnosed with PASC and who completed the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). The sample was predominantly female (n = 36) and white (n = 32). Effect sizes compared to the normative mean T scores and base rates of elevated (T > 69) scores were calculated.

Results:
PAI scales measuring somatic preoccupation and depression had large effect sizes and the highest base rates of scale elevations, with the mean T score at approximately the normative cutoff for clinical significance (T = 70). The Schizophrenia Thought Disorder subscale (SCZ-T) also had a large effect size and high base rate of elevation, likely reflecting cognitive concerns. Scales measuring anxiety had medium effect sizes. The other PAI scales generally had small to negligible effect sizes. There were no significant differences between hospitalized and non-hospitalized participants on the PAI.

Conclusions:
Overall, PAI scales measuring psychological distress, particularly somatic preoccupation and depression, were the most frequently elevated in the participants. The specific reasons for somatic preoccupation could not be determined in this study. Potential explanations include a vulnerability to distress in Long COVID patients, premorbid somatic preoccupation perhaps motivating these patients to seek clinical attention, or socioenvironmental factors leading some COVID patients to be somatically preoccupied with minor physiological changes and attribute those changes to COVID-19.

Paywall, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13854046.2022.2030411

 

I hate that word "distress". It's like a beacon to the reader - BPS gaslighting here...

 

They literally can't imagine what illness means. It's simply unthinkable.

Literally can't.

Next these geniuses will wonder why sick people want "medical attention".

 

who is still funding this personality assessment drivel .i thought it would of died of after the trash papers about cancer personalities .

 

Ugh. The NIH. All the authors are from a physical rehabilitation department.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant UL1TR002494