Coronavirus, covid-19 | Research: These are the long-term effects of covid-19 patients

The acclaimed medical journal The Lancet has published a study where researchers have followed a total of 1733 people who were discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in the pandemic epicenter Wuhan in the period January-May this year.

The goal is to uncover what kind of long-term effects the patients had after six months.

3 out of 4 reported ailments

The patients had a mean age of 57 years, were divided into three categories based on severity:

• Level 3: No need for oxygen
• Level 4: Need for oxygen supply
• Level 5-6: More advanced breathing support (several variants)

The report pays little attention to the very sickest patients, and No who did not need hospitalization.

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According to the report, 76 percent of the patients reported that they had at least one symptom six months after they were discharged. The most common were as follows:

• Fatigue / fatigue or muscle weakness: 63 percent
• Sleep problems: 26 percent
• Hair loss: 22 percent

With the exception of symptoms directly related to lung function, it seems that the severity of the hospital has little effect on how widespread the symptoms are:

Pain and depression

In addition, patients have explained more about everyday life afterwards. It turns out that around 1 in 4 struggle with depression, and about the same number report pain or discomfort.

– This is as far as we know the largest study on long-term effects in those who have been discharged from hospital with covid-19. We found that after six months, most patients had experienced at least one symptom, especially fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep problems, as well as depression or anxiety, the researchers write.

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– Our findings suggest that being a woman and seriously ill are risk factors for persistent psychological symptoms.

They point out that the results largely coincide with previous research on the long-term effects of the SARS virus.

The lungs take a long time to recover

The fact that fatigue is the most common symptom is largely due to the fact that the coronavirus usually attacks the lungs most strongly.

The results of the study are difficult to understand for non-medics, but the main conclusion is that about half of the patients had at least one abnormality in their CT images after six months.

The studies show that a significant proportion, 22-56 percent depending on the group, had abnormalities in lung function (diffusion) six months later, the researchers write, and emphasize that the severity of the disease is largely related to the side effects, they write in their report.

The researchers emphasize that the study has several limitations. Among other things, they cannot say with certainty when some of the symptoms appeared, and whether it was related to the disease. They also point out that patients who had milder symptoms were not included in the study. Six months is also a short period to put two dashes under the answer.

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