Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in people with long COVID, ME/CFS, and controls 2023 Sanal-Hayes et al

Background
Prevalences of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) have not previously been compared between individuals with long COVID and individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), and healthy age-matched controls. For these reasons, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of PTSD and CPTSD in individuals with long COVID (n=21) and ME/CFS (n=20) and age-matched controls (n=20).

Methods
A case-case-control approach was employed, participants completed the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), a self-report measure of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) of PTSD and CPTSD consisting of 18 items. Scores were calculated for each PTSD and Disturbances in Self-Organization (DSO) symptom cluster and summed to produce PTSD and DSO scores. PTSD was diagnosed if the criteria for PTSD were met but not DSO, and CPTSD was diagnosed if the criteria for PTSD and DSO were met. Moreover, each cluster of PTSD and DSO were compared among individuals with long COVID, ME/CFS and healthy controls.

Results
Individuals with long COVID (PTSD= 5%, CPTSD= 33%) had more prevalence of PTSD and CPTSD than individuals with ME/CFS (PTSD= 0%, CPTSD= 20%) and healthy controls (PTSD= 0%, CPTSD= 0%). PTSD and CPTSD prevalence was greater in individuals with long COVID and ME/CFS than controls. Individuals with long COVID had greater values controls for all PTSD values. Moreover, individuals with long COVID had greater values than controls for all DSO values. Individuals with ME/CFS had greater values than controls for all DSO values. Both long COVID and ME/CFS groups differed in overall symptom scores compared to controls.

Conclusion
Findings of this study demonstrated that individuals with long COVID generally had more cases of PTSD and CPTSD than individuals with ME/CFS and healthy controls.

Paywall, https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(23)00756-8/fulltext#

 

Same group that published People With Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Exhibit Similarly Impaired Vascular Function, 2023, McLaughlin+.

I don't have access to this paper, but their previous paper didn't mention which diagnostic criteria were being used. Still a good result to see that even with possibly a bad diagnostic criterium rates of PTSD and CPTSD are comparably low in ME/CFS patients. The Long-Covid result primarily depends on which definition of Long-Covid is being used and what cohorts they are looking at, if they are looking at "anything 4 weeks after an infection" then this will naturally include all sorts of things.

 

The introduction focuses on the psychological impacts of hospitalisation, leading to ± complex PTSD.

Despite all this they do not (anywhere that I could find) indicate that their LC cohort consisted of previously hospitalised patients and that the ME cohort didn't.

Also note that the mean duration of LC was apparently 16 years, longer than the ME/CFS mean

There was no control group of patients hospitalised with something other than Covid, only healthy controls without PTSD.

HCs also declared traumatic experiences (without scoring high enough to qualify for PTSD of CPTSD.

For experts in PTSD, it's impressive they've managed to say "PSTD" no less than 3 times in the manuscript.

 

I assume that was supposed to be 16 months--at least, I hope so!

but I haven't heard of complex PTSD before.