New York: For people who have recovered from diagnoses characterised by persistent fatigue, a new understanding of symptoms seems to have been key to recovery. This is the conclusion of a study from Linkoping University, Sweden.
The researchers have identified common steps and turning points in patients’ stories, which can contribute to new ways of understanding and rehabilitating these conditions, according to the study in Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care.
The medical term for severe tiredness or exhaustion that does not pass, regardless of the amount of rest, is fatigue. Persistent fatigue is a predominant symptom in diagnoses such as post-COVID-19 condition (or long COVID), exhaustion disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome.
“There’s very little research on how people experience recovery from these conditions. They are very much left to fight their own battles. We wanted to find out what healthcare can do and learn from people’s experiences of recovery,” says Hannah Linnros, PhD student at Linkoping University and clinical psychologist at Linköping University Hospital.
To get a deeper understanding of the path to recovery, Hannah Linnros has interviewed 14 adults who had been on long-term sick leave with at least one of the diagnoses post-COVID-19 condition, exhaustion disorder or chronic fatigue syndrome.
In interviews, they described the course of their recovery. The researchers analysed their stories to identify crucial factors and events in the recovery process and how these were related.
The researchers found several recurring steps in the participants’ recovery process. In the beginning, most of them felt that they were in a hopeless situation. They had sought care, but felt that they did not get answers as to why they felt sick or whether it was possible to get well and, if so, how. That was when they started to search for knowledge about what they could do to change their situation.
