Diagnostic workup of post-COVID-19 neurological symptoms and psychometric evaluation at follow-up (N=50)
| Neurological clinical examination, n (%) | 50 (100) |
| Presence of abnormalities, n (%) | 0 |
| Brain MRI examination, n (%) | 49 (98) |
| Minor white matter hyperintensities, n/N (%) | 8/46 (17) |
| Neurocognitive testing, n (%) | 15 (30) |
| Mild impairment of attention* n/N, (%) | 8/15 (53) |
| Impairment of attention and related dysexecutive dysfunction† n/N, (%) | 6/15 (40) |
| Normal neurocognitive testing n/N, (%) | 1/15 (7) |
| Positive diagnosis of somatic symptom disorder | |
| Positive criterium A (PHQ15 ≥12), n/N, (%) | 47/50 (94) |
| Positive criterium B (SSD12 ≥23), n/N, (%) | 33/50 (66) |
| Positive criterium C (evolution 4 weeks), n/N, (%) | 50/50 (100) |
| Three positive criteria (A+B+C), n/N, (%) | 32/50 (64) |
| Positive diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (SOFA ≥3), n/N, (%) | 45/50 (90) |
| Consumption of care during the follow-up period | |
| No of physicians consulted per patient, median (IQR) | 8 (5–9) |
| No of blood testing per patient, median (IQR) | 7 (4–10) |
| No of radiological examinations per patient, median (IQR) | 6 (3–7) |
| Patients included in a rehabilitation programme, n, (%) | 23 (46) |
| Reported feelings during acute COVID-19 (Likert scale 5/10) n/N, (%) | |
| Feeling distressed | 38/50 (76) |
| Feeling isolated | 30/50 (60) |
| Fear of infecting loved ones | 29/50 (58) |
| Fear of dying | 30/50 (60) |
| Psychiatric comorbidities | |
| COVID-19-related post-traumatic stress (IES-R ≥39), n/N, (%) | 12/43 (28) |
| Positive anxiety screening (HAD anxiety score ≥11), n/N, (%) | 13/50 (26) |
| Positive depression screening (HAD depression score ≥11), n/N, (%) | 8/50 (16) |
| Insomnia (ISI ≥8), n/N, (%) | 29/43 (67) |
| On-going psychiatric follow-up, n/N, (%) | 28/50 (56) |
| History of trauma, n/N, (%) | 27/50 (54) |
| History of Somatic Symptom Disorder, n/N (%) | 19/50 (38) |
| Personality testing | |
| High level of alexithymia traits (TAS20 ≥61), n/N, (%) | 18/43 (42) |
| High level of self-oriented perfectionism (HF-MPS ≥20/35), n/N, (%) | 33/42 (79) |
| Personal and social impact of post-COVID symptoms | |
| Significant work and/or pay loss | 25/50 (50) |
| Social isolation | 27/50 (54) |
| Affected quality of life in at least one area, n/N, (%) | 24/42 (57) |
*Sustained, divide and/or selective attention, with no other cognitive dysfunction.
†Attention deficit associated with working memory dysfunction, verbal fluency deficit and/or slow information processing. No abnormalities in other executive functions, language, episodic memory nor visuospatial tests.
HAD, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HF-MPS, Hewit & Flett-Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; IES-R, The Impact of Event Scale-Revised; ISI, Insomnia Severity Index; SOFA, Schedule Of Fatigue and Anergia; TAS, Toronto Alexithymia Scale.