Mental and physical health in persons receiving inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation treatment for post-COVID condition 2025 Meule et al

[Andy]

Abstract​

Background​

Post-COVID condition is most commonly associated with physical symptoms such as dyspnea on exertion, difficulty in concentration, fatigue, and frailty but meta-analyses also document high rates of mental health problems such as anxiety disorders, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Methods and findings​

In the current study, 140 persons (66% female) receiving inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation treatment for post-COVID condition for an average of 27 days (SD = 11) completed self-report measures on mental and physical health at admission and discharge. At admission, 54%, 36%, 36%, and 14% screened positively for somatoform syndrome, generalized anxiety, depression, and PTSD, respectively. Higher pulmonary functioning related to higher self-reported physical functioning (but not to measures of mental health) at admission. Several self-reported indicators for mental and physical health improved from admission to discharge.

Conclusions​

The current study corroborates findings about the high mental and physical burden of post-COVID condition. However, both mental and physical symptoms show partial improvement during a specialized inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation treatment.

Open access

 

[Utsikt]

They used PHQ-9, SF-39, PC-PTSD and a «self-made questionnaire» for mental health scores.

Apparently, there was no dose-response relationship:

One of the reviewers asked whether treatment duration related to treatment outcome. Thus, we tested any time × length of stay interaction effects (see analysis code available here https://osf.io/byfzc), which were all p > 0.021, thus indicating that treatment duration did not relate to treatment outcome.

When you add the lack of controls and primarily subjective outcomes, this paper doesn’t really tell us much, other than that rehab continues to be completely unevidenced.

As is tradition, they had to include some psychobabble in the conclusion:

While impaired mental health may follow from physical post-COVID condition symptoms, future studies need to address the role of pre-COVID–19 somatization tendencies in the development and maintenance of post-COVID condition.