COVID-19: Impact of diagnosis threat and suggestibility on subjective cognitive complaints

Abstract

\n Background/Objective\n A subset of recovered COVID-19 patients report persistent neurological symptoms. These include non-specific symptoms (e.g., headaches and fatigue) which were found to be affected by psychological processes in other disorders (e.g., post-concussion syndrome, PCS, after mild traumatic brain injury). The current study assessed the impact of diagnosis threat (i.e., information regarding the long-term neurological impact of COVID-19) and suggestibility on endorsed symptoms of both recovered patients and healthy controls.\n \n Method\n Recovered patients (n\u202f=\u202f90) and healthy controls (n\u202f=\u202f210) described their cognitive functioning after being randomly assigned to: (a) Experimental group: These participants read an article that explored long-term neurological symptoms among COVID-19 survivors. (b) Control group: These participants read an article providing general information regarding the disease.\n \n Results\n Recovered patients, but not healthy controls, endorsed more symptoms in the experimental condition compared to the control condition. Moreover, suggestibility was correlated with endorsement of symptoms.\n \n Conclusions\n Post COVID-19 neurological symptoms may, at least partially, be affected by non-neurological factors such as diagnosis threat. Information regarding long-term effects of COVID-19 may skew reported symptoms with highly suggestible individuals particularly susceptible to these effects. Further research, however, is needed to validate and elaborate upon these initial findings.\n