COVID-19 increases the risk of chronic fatigue syndrome, U. Health study says

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A recent University of Utah Health study finds COVID-19 increases chronic fatigue syndrome risk by eightfold.
Research director Suzanne D. Vernon urges healthcare providers to address this condition post-COVID-19.
Chronic fatigue syndrome cases have surged, with nearly 90% linked to symptomatic long COVID.

SALT LAKE CITY — The virus associated with COVID-19 increases the risk of chronic fatigue syndrome by almost eight times, according to a study recently completed by University of Utah Health.

The study used information from the National Institute of Health's Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery Initiative, which has 11,785 patents who were infected with COVID-19 and 1,439 who were not. Of those, 4.5% of those infected with COVID-19 developed myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, where only 0.6% of those who were not infected with COVID-19 developed the disease.

Suzanne D. Vernon, research director at the Bateman Horne Center and lead author of the study, encouraged urgent action based on those results.

"These findings highlight the urgent need for health care providers to recognize and address (chronic fatigue syndrome) as a diagnosable and treatable condition in the wake of COVID-19," Vernon said.

Vernon said the Bateman Horne Center is dedicated to helping providers recognize the additional need. "Early diagnosis and proper management can transform lives," she said.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is categorized by the Mayo Clinic as at least six months of extreme exhaustion, which does not improve with rest and can get worse with physical or mental activity.

U. Health's study showed new cases of chronic fatigue syndrome are 15 times more common since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 90% of those new cases were from "the most symptomatic long COVID patients," according to a statement from U. Health.

Chronic fatigue syndrome can be triggered by an acute infection, like COVID-19.

Dr. Rachel Hess, associate vice president for research in health sciences at U. Health, said this analysis was the first to estimate post-viral infections of chronic fatigue syndrome, and she hopes it will lead to more studies.

"This condition, which predominantly impacts women, has often been dismissed. ... This paper will hopefully change the trajectory of research into this understudied condition," she said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.