“Lots of people act like psychosomatic = not a real problem. Unfortunately, having a symptom for psychosomatic reasons sucks just as much as having it for any other reason. Sometimes it sucks more, because nobody takes you seriously.” -
"Due to the media’s focus on possible physical causes of Long Covid, and the general lack of understanding of the nature of psychosomatic causes, I suspect more people with Long Covid symptoms are going to their doctor’s office rather than to a therapist or psychiatrist, who would be better equipped to handle psychosomatic issues. "
--You know... if there are very physical causes that perhaps can be helped, somewhat, at least symptomatically, maybe possibly curatively.... going to a therapist's office, may be depriving the patient of a viable treatment. To wit: 3D brain SPECT (not ordinary, lousy SPECT but 3D thresholded ones) may distinguish fibromyalgia quite well as well as (very) preliminary data indicates covid-related etiology. (Same applies to mTBI -- just because ER CT scan or ER lousy low resolution MRI says everything ok, doesn't mean it's true.) There is lots of room for improvement in neuropsychiatric treatments -- I think exciting times for a young practitioner in the field.
That is super interesting regarding SPECT. Unfortunately not many hospitals have SPECT scanners it seems. I think long Covid is something any young psychiatrist should be thinking about, indeed. There may be a place for neurologists here too give their experience treating functional neurological disorder (which I discuss in my other post).
There is not much doctors can do right now to treat Long Covid. I sought help from 2 doctors (at the 2 month and 4 month mark) and they both just said to rest, eat well, sleep more, and ease back into exercise. (Well, the first also ordered a cardiopulmonary function treadmill test to rule out any organ damage.. which was useful at least for the peace of mind). Most doctors will not want to prescribe any of the investigational Long Covid drugs (like niagen or guanfacine) until a major medical body endorses them. At most they may prescribe an SSRI, from what I have read, which may cause pushback from the patient who says “but I’m not depressed!”. (Some think that fluvoxamine is best suited for long Covid due to its sigma receptor activity)
Thanks for sharing your experience, I think this viewpoint is really valuable.
Thank you! I love the name of your blog!
Wow. What a thoughtful, brave piece of analysis. Thank you.
Thank you!
"Due to the media’s focus on possible physical causes of Long Covid, and the general lack of understanding of the nature of psychosomatic causes, I suspect more people with Long Covid symptoms are going to their doctor’s office rather than to a therapist or psychiatrist, who would be better equipped to handle psychosomatic issues. "
--You know... if there are very physical causes that perhaps can be helped, somewhat, at least symptomatically, maybe possibly curatively.... going to a therapist's office, may be depriving the patient of a viable treatment. To wit: 3D brain SPECT (not ordinary, lousy SPECT but 3D thresholded ones) may distinguish fibromyalgia quite well as well as (very) preliminary data indicates covid-related etiology. (Same applies to mTBI -- just because ER CT scan or ER lousy low resolution MRI says everything ok, doesn't mean it's true.) There is lots of room for improvement in neuropsychiatric treatments -- I think exciting times for a young practitioner in the field.
That is super interesting regarding SPECT. Unfortunately not many hospitals have SPECT scanners it seems. I think long Covid is something any young psychiatrist should be thinking about, indeed. There may be a place for neurologists here too give their experience treating functional neurological disorder (which I discuss in my other post).
There is not much doctors can do right now to treat Long Covid. I sought help from 2 doctors (at the 2 month and 4 month mark) and they both just said to rest, eat well, sleep more, and ease back into exercise. (Well, the first also ordered a cardiopulmonary function treadmill test to rule out any organ damage.. which was useful at least for the peace of mind). Most doctors will not want to prescribe any of the investigational Long Covid drugs (like niagen or guanfacine) until a major medical body endorses them. At most they may prescribe an SSRI, from what I have read, which may cause pushback from the patient who says “but I’m not depressed!”. (Some think that fluvoxamine is best suited for long Covid due to its sigma receptor activity)