Post-COVID Patients With New-Onset Chronic Pain 2 Years After Infection: Cross-Sectional Study.
Andrés Calvache-Mateo, Alba Navas-Otero, Alejandro Heredia-Ciuró and 4 others
PMID 37225540WHAT IT FOUND
Non-hospitalized post-COVID patients with new chronic pain reported higher pain intensity, pain interference, central sensitization, insomnia, fear of movement, catastrophizing, anxiety, stress, and depression than recovered or healthy controls.
Key findings
01The post-COVID group had higher pain intensity and pain interference than both control groups.
02Central sensitization and insomnia severity were higher in the post-COVID group than in the control groups.
03Post-COVID patients had worse quality of life and lower physical activity than controls, while healthy controls and recovered patients did not differ.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design compared groups at one time point, so it cannot show that infection caused pain or how symptoms changed over time. Post-COVID patients were recruited from a patient association, which the authors say may have selected people who were more proactive and possibly had more severe symptoms. The study excluded people hospitalized for COVID-19 and people with pre-existing chronic pain, so it does not describe those groups. The authors state that the pain information collected was not sufficient to identify a more specific pain profile. No attempt was made to impute missing data.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not provide a funding or conflict of interest declaration. The publication types list non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that SARS-CoV-2 infection caused new chronic pain or that any treatment improved it. This was a cross-sectional study of self-reported symptoms in non-hospitalized patients, and post-COVID patients were recruited from a patient association.