Long COVID symptoms can last more than a year, researchers say

A new study published on Tuesday found that long COVID-19 symptoms can last 14.8 months after initial infection.

The study comes as researchers try to better understand the effects of long COVID-19.

A study published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology looked at 52 people who were a part of an initial subset of 100 long COVID-19 patients surveyed last year. Patients participated in the study between 11 and 18 months since they initially tested positive for COVID-19.

Of those who participated in the follow-up study, 77 percent were vaccinated between the first clinic visit and the second.

Seventy-three percent of those who were surveyed were female and the overwhelming majority — 90.3 percent — were white.

The study determined that there was no “significant” change in the frequency of neurologic symptoms between the first and second evaluations. Neurologic symptoms enumerated in the study included “brain fog,” numbness and tingling, headache and dizziness, among others.

Patients who participated in the survey reported “improvements in their recovery, cognitive function, and fatigue, but quality of life measures remained lower.”

“In addition, there were no significant changes in the frequency of non-neurologic symptoms including fatigue, depression/anxiety, shortness of breath, chest pain, and insomnia,” the study added.

The researchers noted that there were significant increases between the initial evaluation and follow-up evaluation in variation in heart rate, blood pressure and gastrointestinal symptoms.  

The development comes as researchers continue to learn more about long COVID, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines as “a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems that people experience after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.”