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Personality and neuropsychiatric symptoms in individuals diagnosed with long COVID, 2024, Avinir et al.

Discussion in 'Psychosomatic research - ME/CFS and Long Covid' started by SNT Gatchaman, Dec 20, 2024.

  1. SNT Gatchaman

    SNT Gatchaman Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    Personality and neuropsychiatric symptoms in individuals diagnosed with long COVID
    Avinir, Asia; Kupershmidt, Aviv; Amsterdam, Dana; Choshen, Guy; Ablin, Jacob Nadav; Elkana, Odelia

    This study investigates persistent physical and neuropsychiatric symptoms in Long COVID, focusing on their severity and assessing risk/resilience factors, including conscientiousness and neuroticism. The study utilizes a mediation model to explore the potential role of psychological distress in mediating its impact on cognitive decline.

    In an online survey, 114 participants diagnosed with Long COVID completed assessments, including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) for psychological distress, Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) questionnaire for cognitive decline, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep disorders, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) with “BIG-5 inventory” subscales for risk/resilience factors.

    Findings showed high rates of depressive disorders (45.6%), generalized anxiety disorders (21%), sleep disturbances (76.3%), and reported cognitive changes (94.7%). Conscientiousness negatively correlated with psychological distress (p < .001, r = − .48) and cognitive decline (p < .001, r = − .36), while neuroticism positively correlated (p < .001, r = .62 and p < .001, r = .41, respectively). Social support negatively correlated with psychological distress (p < .001, r = − .52) and cognitive decline (p < .001, r = − .41). Psychological distress fully mediated personality traits and cognitive decline correlations, with significant full mediation for neuroticism [95% CI = (0.22, 0.48)] and conscientiousness [95% CI = (-0.33, -0.07)], controlling for age, gender, other chronic morbidity and social support.

    The study underscores the significance of incorporating psychological interventions into treatment plans to alleviate distress symptoms associated with cognitive decline in conditions like Long COVID.

    Link | PDF (BMC Infectious Diseases) [Open Access]
     
    SNT Gatchaman, Dec 20, 2024
    #1
    bobbler, Peter Trewhitt, forestglip and 2 others like this.
  2. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    Location:
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    Incorporating psychological interventions into treatment plans to alleviate distress associated with cognitive decline is a reasonable thing to do, so long as there is a need and the patient wants the interventions. Dealing with persistent symptoms and all the life changes associated with them can be very difficult. But surely, that is obvious? Do clinicians really need a study to tell them that some people need support when dealing with a debilitating chronic illness?

    I haven't read this study, but, from the abstract, it seems to fall into the category of 'blame the victim'. As in, 'there must be something about those people (that is different to me), that explains why they are sick (so I can assume that I am safe)'.

    There's the usual attitude of 'the person needs to think differently about the situation they are in, then they would be fine', rather than 'what can we do to make their actual situation better?'. In this case, it's hardly surprising that social support is protective for psychological wellbeing. But, the conclusion of the study, at least in the abstract, is that the person needs psychological interventions, not the help with the housework, financial support and removal of stigma that would actually prevent the psychological distress.


    "Online survey" - it's not sounding promising, there's selection bias there to start with.
     
    Hutan, Dec 20, 2024
    #2
    alktipping, bobbler, RedFox and 7 others like this.
  3. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    They really have to stop using those silly questionnaires because they give such misleading data. If we applied the same nonsense to socioeconomic data, we could solve an economic depression with bands of roving yoga classes and puppet theaters. Or whatever silly nonsense people could think of if they choose to ignore the context of the problem.

    Lies, damned lies, and statistics. There's a deeper layer here: bad interpretation of bad statistical analyses of bad data. This stuff is so much worse than useless, it's excessively harmful.
     
    rvallee, Dec 21, 2024
    #3
    Sean, alktipping, Trish and 2 others like this.
  4. Yann04

    Yann04 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    This kind of stuff was deeply engrained in the eugenics movement. Through spurious correlations (that mainly can be explained by socioeconomic factors) they painted marignalised ethnicities, poor people, queer people as “inherently inferior”, for example by using IQ questionnaires.
     
    Yann04, Dec 21, 2024
    #4
    Sean, alktipping, Trish and 3 others like this.

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