Symptoms of Covid-19

Merged thread

Covid linked to risk of mental illness and brain disorder, study suggests | Coronavirus | The Guardian

I haven't seen the paper but immediately ask who diagnosed the mental health difficulties and whether any diagnoses were achieved by labelling presence of "functional" physical problems as evidence of depression. Then there is the issue of how many patients have been "tipped" into depression by covid, in circumstances which have caused depression in many who have probably not had covid.

Below may be disturbing:

"Dr Tim Nicholson, a psychiatrist and clinical lecturer at King’s College hospital who was not involved in the analysis, said the findings would help steer researchers in the direction of which neurological and psychiatric complications required further careful study.

“I think particularly this raises a few disorders up the list of interests, particularly dementia and psychosis … and pushes a few a bit further down the list of potential importance, including Guillain-Barré syndrome.”

He may be right on the basis of this research but what is the state of play with Benedict Michael et al's work?
How coronavirus can attack the brain | Daily Mail Online

Noted from Pulse Today
How should GPs manage post-Covid depression and Chronic Fatigue? - Pulse Today

"This information is sourced from Dr Tim Nicholson, Consultant Neuropsychiatrist

Q. Should GPs expect to see Post-Covid depression / Chronic Fatigue symptoms and are some treatments more likely to be beneficial than others?

A.

We are already starting to see such cases and we predict this will be a significant, and likely very significant, clinical problem in the coming months
We don t have any evidence to suggest different treatment from routine / non-Covid-19 cases of depression and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) so we d recommend following NICE guidelines for CFS and depression
What will be critical with the CFS, or CFS-like, cases will be ensuring as always that the reality and severity of their symptoms are acknowledged and gradually paced rehabilitation is encouraged; psychosocial factors should not be assumed to be present but should be sensitively explored if thought relevant"

Wonder what that implies as to his knowledge of NICE guideline review, what "paced rehabilitation" means.

He is interested in FND, conversion etc. Whatever the virtues and vices of associated approaches , his advocacy of "acknowledge and pace" is worrying, not in that it will not work in post Covid, (we don't know yet) but in that he seems to have confidence in it on the basis of precedent among CFS patients. We all know the precedent is not good. If he can ignore that, what might he ignore in post covid? Fair question imo.

(Just to preempt, I think we can assume he is not here differentiating CFS from ME).

Hope his views are well scrutinised in the press and by peers. Advocacy of "acknowledge and paced rehab" cannot be made on the basis of CFS experience under past NICE guidelines and should not be made on the basis of a practitioner's own individual interests/school of thought.

Ultimately the proof the pudding of any therapy is the eating, of course, and rehab as an ingredient is recognised by such as Klimas and others. But I am rather suspicious of TN's mindset.

 

Reports of an extended list of possible symptoms for the "new variant" (not sure whether it's the Kent one or the South Africa one - I think probably the latter):

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...must-get-a-covid-test/ar-BB1drz3t?ocid=ASUDHP

 

[Not sure if this short article from Johns Hopkins Medicine has been posted elsewhere.]

12/29/2020
Covid-19 Story Tip: Brain Fog, Fatigue, Dizziness ... Post-COVID POTS Is Real
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/new...og-fatigue-dizziness--post-covid-pots-is-real

[bolding mine]

 

Full title: Distorted chemosensory perception and female sex associate with persistent smell and/or taste loss in people with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: a community based cohort study investigating clinical course and resolution of acute smell and/or taste loss in people with and without SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in London, UK

Open access, https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-021-05927-w

 

Apparently, some more, skin-related, symptoms that it might be worth being aware of:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...in-to-spot/ar-BB1ecuCq?ocid=ASUDHP&li=BBoPWjQ

 

I'm sure everyone has heard that Covid-19 can lead to people losing their sense of smell. Apparently one sufferer lost hers for 11 months and then regained it - and discovered that she can no longer stand the way her fiance smells.

https://www.indy100.com/news/covid-aroma-fiance-b1834336

 

There's been discussion of loss of smell but altered smell has been largely ignored. It's pretty common, though not as much as loss. People who say everything tastes differently afterward. In some cases everything tastes disgustingly foul, or a lingering smell or taste that is always present.

But I guess since it can't be tested for it doesn't exist...

 

The other day, I went into a hall where dance classes have recently resumed. The "if you have any of the following, please don't come in" notice now has four separate symptoms listed, the fourth being "increased fatigue". Is this actually another recognised symptom, or something someone has made up? I don't remember hearing about it.

 

Surely current medical 'thinking' says that people who feel 'fatigued' should do more dance classes, and keep doing more until there are no more hours in the day?

Not none?

Surely?

Or have I misunderstood Sir, and Crawly, and their ilk?

 

Conjunctivitis and very dry mouth reported as symptoms in particular of the "Indian variant":

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...ian-variant/ar-AAKeAXq?ocid=ASUDHP&li=AAnZ9Ug

 

Merged thread -
Delta variant Covid symptoms ‘include headaches, sore throat and runny nose’

Title says it all, really – here's a Guardian article suggesting the symptoms of this variant may not always be recognised, especially in mild cases affecting young people:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-include-headaches-sore-throat-and-runny-nose

ETA: added missed apostrophe and S in first sentence.

 

Strange - it doesn't sound bad enough to cause hospitalisation.

 

"These rising case numbers are probably rooted in the higher rate of transmission and fatigue around social distancing."

Ah, the social distancing "fatigue" again. "Probably"!

 

In a lot of cases, in 'India', it didn't cause hospitalisation.

It caused an unmet need for hospitalization, followed by a need for nothing.

But, just a bad cold.

Expert say.

 

Runny nose is really interesting, have not seen that symptom mentioned at all so far, so it would seem truly unique to this variant.

Frankly surprises the Zoe app caught it, unless they changed since they had long restricted to a small set of symptoms, not allowing user inputs.

 

I think a lot of the transmission is between younger people and children, who usually wouldn't be made seriously ill by any of the variants.

The problem comes when they encounter someone more vulnerable, whose vaccine protection hasn't worked very well. The publicity is because there's a fairly urgent need to let younger people know that they could be passing on a life-threatening illness, rather than what they might easily assume is an annoying but harmless summer cold.

 

Though we do not yet know the possible levels of the Long Covid of the form similar to ME/CFS we will see in children or young adults exposed to the virus. This may not currently seem to be the normal course, but even it effects just a small percentage it can still devastate young lives and across the whole country or the whole world numbers could still add up.

 

Absolutely – they don't want to pass it on to anyone if they can help it, which is another reason for letting everyone know that the symptoms could be mistaken for a cold.

 

There are young people in ICU with this variant. If only 1% need hospitalization but there are thousands of people infected that is a dangerous situation.

My local hospital is opening up covid wards and asking for volunteers to work in them again.

 

The Daily Mail has discovered that myocarditis and pericarditis have been added to the list of symptoms for Pfizer/Moderna, without comment:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...vid-vaccine/ar-AALT35Q?ocid=ASUDHP&li=AAnZ9Ug