According to a new study, many patients who have been infected with the coronavirus have long-term digestive problems linked to psychological trauma, which could be new symptoms of long Covid.
- Covid-19 could cause digestive problems and long-term psychological trauma, according to a new study.
- More than 60% of participants had digestive symptoms more than a year after illness and 40% met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- People with higher PTSD were more likely to have more severe gastrointestinal symptoms.
What if Covid-19 could cause digestive disorders and long-term psychological trauma? This is what a study which has just been published in the journal shows Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “Gastroenterologists often do not ask patients if they have had Covid-19, yet this study shows, with strong evidence, that a previous Covid-19 infection can lead to long-term gastrointestinal symptoms“, explains William Tierney, gastroenterologist and author of this study, in a communicated. The main takeaway from this work is that doctors and digestive disease specialists need to remember that Covid-19 can be the trigger for long-term digestive symptoms in a patient. This could help better understand patients’ symptoms and potentially avoid unnecessary testing.”
Long Covid: 60% of adults presented with digestive disorders more than a year after infection
During their work, researchers from University of Oklahoma School of Medicinein the United States, studied the health data of 530 people, twelve to eighteen months after they were infected with Covid-19. The objective was to measure two potential prolonged symptoms of the coronavirus. Among them, thedigestive problems, by analyzing people who suffered from Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBI), translated into French as disorders of gut-brain interaction, which is characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms of visceral hypersensitivity. Other symptom assessed:e post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with illness experience, measured via questionnaires.
According to the results, more than 60% of participants had symptoms of DGBI – including stomach upset, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, dysphasia – more than a year after the illness. However, before being affected by Covid-19, half of the patients had never had similar digestive problems.
Post-traumatic stress: 40% of patients infected with Covid-19 suffered from it
At the psychological level, more than 40% of participants met the criteria for PTSD. And digestive issues and PTSD were linked. Indeed, according to the study, people with high PTSD were more likely to suffer from more severe gastrointestinal symptoms. “The first months of the pandemic were very scary and traumatic, but the fact that patients are still experiencing trauma more than a year after their hospitalization is significant, says William Tierney. Covid-19 is primarily a respiratory illness, but other respiratory conditions such as the flu do not usually cause long-term gastrointestinal problems, showing that Covid-19 is very different.”
According to the authors, digestive problems and post-traumatic stress disorder could therefore be added to the list of symptoms of long-term Covid. As a reminder, around 2 million French people continued to suffer from symptoms of Covid-19 several months after being infected by the virus at the end of 2022, according to Public health France.
