Speaker 1: It's Thursday, September eight. I'm Oscar Ramrrors from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
Speaker 1: As overall pandemic worries continue to fade, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest curiosities continues to be long COVID, what causes it
Speaker 1: and who is the most susceptible. A new study says
Speaker 1: that psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness could
Speaker 1: be better predictors than physical ailments. To be clear, it's
Speaker 1: not a causal relationship, but there is an association. Sue
Speaker 1: and Wang, research fellow at Harvard and lead author of
Speaker 1: the study, joins us for What to Know. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us, you Wan, thank you. It's my owner to
Speaker 1: be here. Well, let's talk about long COVID right now.
Speaker 1: You know, in a lot of ways, we've seen the
Speaker 1: pandemic subside. Many have been infected, many have had their
Speaker 1: vaccines and booster shots. But a big curiosity that still
Speaker 1: remains in all of this is long COVID. You know.
Speaker 1: So these are people that have been infected with COVID
Speaker 1: and then the symptoms remain for sometimes months after even
Speaker 1: they might be testing negative. And one of the big
Speaker 1: things that we don't know is why exactly it happens
Speaker 1: and who might be more susceptible. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people have said if you're a compromise or have hypertension,
Speaker 1: different physical things you know, could increase your risk for
Speaker 1: long COVID. But this new study, so when that you
Speaker 1: were working on, shows that some psychological stressors are also
Speaker 1: indicators of a more likelihood of this. So depression, anxiety, loneliness,
Speaker 1: a lot of times these are predictors of experiencing long COVID.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit more about the study,
Speaker 1: So Win, thank you for the introduction of our research
Speaker 1: and thank you for interest in our research. So briefly,
Speaker 1: what we did was from early in the pandemic, we
Speaker 1: followed more than fifty four thousand people for a year.
Speaker 1: Over that year, more than three thousand contracted COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: so we also about your COVID symptoms and how long
Speaker 1: they lost it. We found that psychological distress prior to infection,
Speaker 1: including depression, anxiety, worry, perceived stress, and loneliness, were significantly
Speaker 1: associated with increased risk of long COVID. These was not
Speaker 1: explained by health behaviors such as smoking, or by physical
Speaker 1: health conditions like asthma. And interestingly, what we found is
Speaker 1: that these psychological conditions are even stronger predictors for long
Speaker 1: COVID as compared to those physical conditions you just mentioned
Speaker 1: like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in our cohort. Finally, among
Speaker 1: those who developed long COVID, we found that people with
Speaker 1: higher psychological distress before getting COVID were also had higher
Speaker 1: risk of getting daily life impyramid due to long COVID,
Speaker 1: and they report more symptoms of long COVID. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting stuff in here. I mean, if
Speaker 1: people had reported two or more types of these distressors,
Speaker 1: it increased their risk by that's how much it could
Speaker 1: have increased it. So they're just more susceptible to all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And to be clear, having stress and anxiety
Speaker 1: and depressionalities doesn't necessarily mean it's going to cause long COVID.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a causal effect per se, but
Speaker 1: there is an association about having a lot of these
Speaker 1: stressors in your life. So what we did was an
Speaker 1: observation study, so we can not say it's causal. But
Speaker 1: after you try to account for those demographic factors like age, stacks, raise, ethnicity,
Speaker 1: and also those physical conditions. We try to disentangled effect
Speaker 1: whether these psychological conditions are more strongly predictors than those
Speaker 1: physical conditions. Now, a lot of times when we're talking
Speaker 1: about long COVID, as I mentioned, you know, these are
Speaker 1: prolonged symptoms after having COVID, A lot of times people
Speaker 1: say they they experienced, you know, the brain fog, being
Speaker 1: very lethargic, just being super tired, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people will say, well, a lot of they're just kind
Speaker 1: of carrying this in their head. It's just a psychological
Speaker 1: thing for them. And to be clear again that that's
Speaker 1: not what the study is showing as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not that it's all in your head. It's a
Speaker 1: purely psychological thing. There are some physical symptoms that do
Speaker 1: persist as well. But just because you've had some of
Speaker 1: these symptoms before, it does not mean it's just a
Speaker 1: purely psychological phenomen on exactly. So our results should not
Speaker 1: be misintegrated as supporting the have of hypothesis that it's
Speaker 1: all in our heads. First of all, among those who
Speaker 1: develop long COVID, around half of them did not have
Speaker 1: any psychological distress at baseline, and most importantly, when we
Speaker 1: excluded people who only reported fatigue had it those kind
Speaker 1: of psychological and neurological symptoms as their long COVID symptoms,
Speaker 1: the results were almost identical. Yeah, I mean, I know
Speaker 1: that all of this just really makes more of a
Speaker 1: call for giving more people access obviously to mental health care.
Speaker 1: We saw people go throughout the pandemic and really suffer
Speaker 1: a lot, their mental health suffered a lot, and again,
Speaker 1: you know, just having these things before could make this
Speaker 1: very novel virus. You know, treating our bodies in a
Speaker 1: crazy different way than they've ever felt before could also
Speaker 1: exacerbate some of those things. So I know that's been
Speaker 1: one of the calls as well, is to pay more
Speaker 1: attention to it and have better accessibility for mental health. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: especially with our findings that these are even stronger predictors
Speaker 1: than those well established risk factors of those physical conditions.
Speaker 1: We definitely need to understand that mental health conditions and
Speaker 1: physical well being are so strongly interconnected, and we need
Speaker 1: to make cure accessible and improve the qualitative care for
Speaker 1: those who need it. Well, we'll keep an eye out
Speaker 1: for more research that comes down the line on long COVID.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, it's kind of one of those big
Speaker 1: curiosities still and very tough to uh see what it's
Speaker 1: going to happen beforehand, and then also difficulty in treating that.
Speaker 1: So we'll keep an eye out for all of that.
Speaker 1: Sue and Wang, research fellow at Harvard and lead author
Speaker 1: of this latest study on long COVID. Thank you very
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Have
Speaker 1: a good one. I'm Oscar Ramrors and this has been
Speaker 1: reopening America. Don't forget effort today's big news stories. You
Speaker 1: can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every
Speaker 1: money through Friday, so follow us on iHeart Radio or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast