Long COVID and mental health

Long COVID is when a variety of symptoms (that may come in different clusters for different groups of people) persist beyond the initial infection stage of the COVID-19 illness. The infection will have gone, but the symptoms may remain and mostly clear up within 12 weeks (NHS, 2021); however, they can persist for much longer. Nabavi (2020) discussed the symptoms of long COVID, and one of the main ones noted was profound fatigue. A wide range of other symptoms were also noted by Nabavi (2020), including cough, breathlessness, muscle and body aches, chest heaviness or pressure, skin rashes, palpitations, fever, headache, diarrhoea and pins and needles, with a very common feature being the illness relapsing and remitting, where the patient may feel they have recovered but then suddenly feel unwell again.

The NHS (2021) updated their list of symptoms of long COVID, adding the symptoms of anxiety and depression. It is understandable why extreme fatigue with other symptoms of physical illness, which never seem to fully go, would affect someone's mood. However, there may be more of a neurological impact that also contributes to this state of mind, rather than just the depressing nature of the physical symptoms and the length of illness. This article explores the evidence available to shed light on the association between long COVID and mental health.