"More psyche than virus"?

German long-Covid study with new findings and surprising conclusion

Created: 09/13/2022, 12:19 p.m

By: Anna Lorenz

A current study by the Essen University Hospital on Long-Covid leads to a new perspective on the disease.

According to the study, the psyche could play a crucial role.

Essen - so many facets, so few facts: Long-Covid as a disease resulting from a corona infection is quieter in the media, but no less serious.

On closer inspection, it becomes clear: having to live for weeks and months with diffuse symptoms that can severely impair everyday life and not knowing whether the symptoms will go away is extremely stressful.

A study by the University Hospital Essen started to research the causes of Long-Covid - with surprising results.

Long-Covid: Fatigue, brain fog, memory problems - is it all psychological?

It's a terrible idea: Day after day you're plagued by all sorts of ailments, indisposition, tiredness.

The symptoms are sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker or alternate.

There doesn't seem to be an end in sight, and scientifically unambiguous findings are still lacking.

When physical examinations then all end without findings, those affected often feel helpless.

Nevertheless, there are some questionable "miracle treatments" for long-Covid, which medical professionals clearly advise against.

But what if Long-Covid were psychological?

It is understandable that many patients who have to struggle with the disease in everyday life feel alienated by this thesis.

As author Thomas Müller explains in the specialist portal

, those affected finally described brain fog, memory problems and language difficulties as the most common symptoms of Long-Covid - and thus processes that can basically be located in neurology.

However, a study by the University Hospital Essen surprised with test results that make the psyche appear as an important factor in long-Covid illness.

Study: Long-Covid patients are examined neurologically - surprising results

Current study: Fleischer, M., Szepanowski, F., Tovar, M. et al.

Post-COVID-19 Syndrome is Rarely Associated with Damage of the Nervous System: Findings from a Prospective Observational Cohort Study in 171 Patients.

Neurol Ther (2022).

The study can be found here.

In the cohort study with 171 patients, the scientists examined the extent to which damage to the nervous system was found in long-Covid patients.

For this, those affected were “subjected to comprehensive neurological diagnostics”.

Nerves, blood vessels and signal transmission in cells and tissues were examined and blood analyzes were carried out.

“Additionally, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and lumbar puncture were performed in subgroups of patients.

In addition, patients underwent neuropsychological, psychosomatic, and fatigue assessments,” the study said.

The result: 85.8 percent of the people examined, who were mostly female and middle-aged, showed no neurological abnormalities.

Most of the subjects had suffered mild to moderate acute COVID-19 and reported clear signs of illness.

Nevertheless, the doctors were only able to make a diagnosis in 2.3 percent of the cases that was not long-Covid or seemed to be related to the previous corona infection.

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Explosive Essen study: "Long-Covid has much more to do with the psyche than with the virus"

However, the scientists made some discoveries.

For example, “sensory or motor complaints” frequently occurred in combination with another neurological diagnosis instead of Long-Covid.

Previous mental illnesses could also be identified as a “risk factor for the development of a post-COVID-19 syndrome”.

Is Long-Covid a matter of the mind?

(Icon image) © Pixabay

As a result, however, "increased levels of somatization indicate a pathogenesis that may include psychosomatic factors" - or, as the co-author of the study, Prof. Christoph Kleinschnitz from the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Essen,

put it in an interview with

: “In other diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, one can clearly identify a focus of inflammation in the brain.

In the case of long-Covid, the findings are normal in most cases.

We conclude from this: Long-Covid has much more to do with the psyche than with the virus.”

Accordingly, the ongoing impairments to health were possibly related to the fact that "the processing of the disease in the brain" went wrong.

Similar connections had already been examined in the past in cancer diseases.

According to Kleinschnitz, there must always be a comprehensive clarification of symptoms in the style of Long-Covid, especially with regard to other causes;

However, if the examinations remain inconclusive, "work can be carried out together with medical specialists to deal with the disease".

(askl)