Hair Loss and Sexual Dysfunction Join Fatigue and Brain Fog in List of Long COVID Symptoms

61 symptoms are part of the overall Long Covid experience, according to health records from 2.4 million people in the UK, and some important demographic groups are more vulnerable.

According to new study, those who have Long Covid have had a larger range of symptoms than previously assumed. Sexual dysfunction and hair loss are some of these symptoms.

According to a recent study, individuals having a primary care record of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which produces Covid-19, reported 62 symptoms substantially more frequently than those without such a record did 12 weeks after initial infection. On July 25, 2022, the study was released in the journal Nature Medicine.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and a group of doctors and researchers from across England examined anonymized electronic health information of 2.4 million patients in the UK. The National Institute for Health and Care Research and UK Research and Innovation provided funding for the study. After accounting for other clinical diagnoses, the data collected between January 2020 and April 2021 included 1.9 million individuals without any evidence of coronavirus infection and 486,149 individuals with a history of infection.

The study team was able to pinpoint three separate kinds of symptoms that participants with ongoing health issues following infection reported using just non-hospitalized patients.

Respiratory difficulties, cognitive and mental health disorders, and later a wider variety of symptoms were common categories for symptom patterns. While anosmia (loss of smell), chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and fever are among the most prevalent symptoms, additional frequently reported symptoms include:

Anhedonia (lack of enjoyment), limb swelling, fever, sexual dysfunction, stool incontinence, and nausea and vomiting

Senior author of the study is Dr. Shamil Haroon, Associate Clinical Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham. Says Dr. Haroon

This study confirms what patients have been telling doctors and policymakers throughout the pandemic: that Long Covid symptoms are exceedingly varied and cannot be adequately explained by other variables like chronic health issues or lifestyle risk factors.

The symptoms we found "could aid doctors and clinical guideline authors in improving the assessment of patients with long-term Covid-19 effects, and to afterwards explore how this symptom load might be effectively treated."

Jennifer Camaradou, the study's patient partner and co-author, said:

"This work plays a key role in developing and enhancing our understanding of the pathogenesis and complexity of protracted COVID. It draws attention to the severity and variation of symptom manifestation across various clusters. The extra study of risk variables will be welcomed by patients with pre-existing medical issues.

those who are more at danger

The researchers not only discovered a broader range of symptoms, but also significant demographic groupings and behaviors that place people at a higher risk of acquiring Long Covid.

According to the study, those who are female, younger, and who identify as black, mixed, or belonging to another ethnic group had a higher chance of getting Long Covid. Furthermore, those with poor socioeconomic status, those who are overweight or obese, smokers, and those who had a variety of medical issues were more likely to have chronic symptoms.

Lead author of the study and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research, Anuradhaa Subramanian, stated:

Our risk factor data analyses are particularly interesting since they enable us to think about probable causes or contributors to Long Covid. We already know that people are more susceptible to a number of illnesses and ailments, including Long Covid, due to certain modifiable features like smoking and obesity. But other factors, including biological sex and race, also seem to be significant.

For instance, autoimmune illnesses are more common among women. We are more interested in determining if autoimmunity or other reasons may account for the elevated risk in women after seeing the greater chance of Long Covid in our study. These findings will aid in further focusing research on potential causes of these post-infection chronic symptoms as well as ways to assist patients who are suffering them.

The study team was able to identify post-SARS-CoV-2 infections at a particular stage of the worldwide pandemic thanks to patient records for 2.3 million patients. The study compares a sizable number of individuals who had coronavirus infections with a control group of uninfected individuals during the first phase of the pandemic in the UK between January 2020 and April 2021.

To reliably capture persistent symptoms observed after infection, a multidisciplinary team of epidemiologists, doctors, data scientists, statisticians, and patients decoded electronic health records.

Says Dr. Shamil Haroon

"The findings are a tribute to the opportunity that these public health databases provide as well as to the strength of collaborative effort to give critically important research about the experiences of many people who have been impacted by chronic symptoms following coronavirus infection.

"I think that by providing a framework to enable healthcare responses to novel and emerging illnesses, our study will further validate the voices of patients and engagement groups."