U.K. trial Rehabilitation exercise and psychological support after Covid 19 infection (REGAIN) Warwick University

This post and all to post #12 have been moved here from the BPS attempts at psychologising Long Covid thread. Links to Warwick University and National Institute of Health Research web pages in this post

Eurekalert: New clinical trial to test whether structured exercise benefits 'long covid' patients

Researchers at the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust in the UK are to investigate whether a tailored online exercise and support programme would benefit those experiencing long-term symptoms of Covid-19 - what has been dubbed 'long Covid'.

The results of the Rehabilitation Exercise and psycholoGical support After covid-19 InfectioN (REGAIN) trial will help to guide recommendations for treatment of people with long Covid, for whom there is currently only limited advice and guidelines available.

ETA
Due to social distancing restrictions, the trial will be conducted entirely online.

...

Dr Gordon McGregor, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist, is Chief Investigator for the REGAIN trial at Warwick Clinical Trials Unit and UHCW NHS Trust.

Dr McGregor said: "At a critical time in the treatment and recovery of patients with Covid-19 we are proud to be at the forefront of research into providing world class long term care.

"The main aim of the REGAIN trial is to find out if we can improve people's quality of life with a single session of advice and support or an 8 week exercise and support programme. It's not just about improving fitness. It's about improving any aspect of people's lives; whatever they feel is important to them, or getting back what they may have lost after having Covid-19. For some people, that might be physical, for others it might be mental, or it could be a bit of both.

 

Surely it's long overdue for a trial to find out if keeping a pet rock is beneficial.

What is the cause of this obsession that exercise must cure everything.

 

I think it has its roots in Puritanism and/or the Protestant Work Ethic.

 

Presumably it will be a case of measuring outcome with a questionnaire 'was the treatment brilliant?' with a tick box for 'surreally excellent'.

I am beginning to realise that those five words 'we are proud to be' mean 'we know we are complete jerks, and these five words prove it but aren't we amazing?'.

 

Too much muscle...

...between the ears.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337667529641222144

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337658114452164608

 

This looks to be the same group behind this, Protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility trial of exercise rehabilitation for people with POTS: the PULSE study (2020) MacGregor et al

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337542742466043904

 

the REGAIN trial
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/ctu/trials/regain
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR132046

Award:
£1,191,977.49

 

My bolding.

I see no point in reading further when it starts with such a blatant misdirection.

According to my understanding many of the people of whom they speak have still not recovered.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1310859470025764864

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337763056978366464


https://twitter.com/user/status/1337764303689093120

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337798195691261952

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337799846217052173

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337802020032573441

 

Some older comments -- when @rvallee spotted the announcement on Twitter in September:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bps-attempts-at-psychologizing-longcovid.16013/page-12#post-291260

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bps-attempts-at-psychologizing-longcovid.16013/page-12#post-292125

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bps-attempts-at-psychologizing-longcovid.16013/page-13#post-293255

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bps-attempts-at-psychologizing-longcovid.16013/page-13#post-293258

https://www.s4me.info/threads/bps-attempts-at-psychologizing-longcovid.16013/page-13#post-293418

 

The comments on the new tweet are worth reading. Not many happy campers. Turns out the "small militant minority" is actually a large organic supermajority in the patient population.

It's really the egregiousness of those lies that get me. They all repeated it in response to the NICE guidelines. They know it's a lie. It can't even be defended that it's a blatant lie. And yet they feel absolutely no shame in repeating this obvious. People with no integrity should not work in medicine. Full stop.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1337670391771373568


https://twitter.com/user/status/1337775028411101185

 

Someone mentioned that this represents about 1/4 of the research budget dedicated to LC. Sounds right but anyone has a link handy for the total sum? To be sure.

That would be a serious dereliction of duty, to continue to waste scarce research funding on a failed ideology that is being dismantled as this is happening.

There was a retort from one of the PIs that this excludes people with PEM (or exertion intolerance, whatever, they don't seem to grasp what PEM is at all), which obviously makes no sense as it's one of the most common symptoms, basically a defining feature of LC as much as it is for ME.

Either they don't listen to the patients, or do and just don't care because the conclusions are already written.

 

3) and patients with exercise intolerance are excluded yet many patients with #LongCovid or #POSTCOVID19 do have exercise intolerance

Surely just about anyone with 'Long Covid' has exercise intolerance. It is part of what we call feeling ill.
It need not imply PEM, just that trying to do stuff is unpleasant.

 

PULSE study, REGAIN study. Anything sounding 'catchy' should be binned. And anyone creating these acronyms should be sent for retraining.

 

On the 12th of November, NIHR announced a £20m research call, closing on the 9th of December:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-20m...ysical-and-mental-effects-of-long-covid/26163

They also announced on the 10th of December that they were funding projects totalling £5.5m, including REGAIN:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-fu...vestigate-long-term-impacts-of-covid-19/26390

REGAIN isn't the only rehabilitative programme that was funded; £781,964 went to UCL for "supported remote rehabilitation post Covid-19".

Edit to add: the UCL one seems to be described here as well:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/aug/new-rehabilitation-app-aid-recovery-covid-19-long-haulers

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1338193929804636161


https://twitter.com/user/status/1338193940793622529