People dwelling with lengthy COVID usually really feel dismissed, disbelieved, and unsupported by their well being care suppliers, in keeping with a brand new study from the University of Surrey.
The study, which was published within the Journal of Health Psychology, checked out how sufferers with lengthy COVID expertise their sickness. The study discovered that many sufferers really feel they must show their sickness is bodily to be taken severely, and because of this, usually reject psychological help, fearing it implies their signs are “all within the thoughts.”
“We discovered that the issue is not folks with lengthy COVID refusing assist—it is in regards to the deep want for folks to be believed. When a affected person feels dismissed, providing psychological help as a substitute of medical care may be misconstrued as insulting,” mentioned Professor Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there are 1.9 million individuals who reside with lengthy COVID within the UK. Long COVID signs embody fatigue, problem concentrating, muscle aches, and shortness of breath, which persist for a lot of weeks, typically months, after the preliminary COVID-19 an infection.
Surrey’s study concerned in-depth interviews with 14 folks within the UK between the ages of 27 to 63 who had skilled lengthy COVID signs for greater than 4 weeks. The group included 12 girls and two males.
“We discovered that our members reside a lifetime of fixed uncertainty, struggling to seek out therapy. People instructed us that they did not really feel listened to, some mentioned they’d misplaced belief in docs, their social circles, and even their very own our bodies due to the entire expertise. Medical recommendation is essential—however psychological help have to be supplied with care. If it is seen as changing medical assist, it could actually really feel dismissive,” mentioned Saara Petker, scientific psychologist, co-author of the review and former Ph.D. scholar on the University of Surrey.
More data:
Saara Petker et al, Patients’ experiences of dwelling with Long Covid and their beliefs in regards to the position of psychology of their {condition}, Journal of Health Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.1177/13591053251325112
Citation:
Study finds lengthy COVID sufferers really feel strain to show their sickness is actual (2025, March 26)
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