Re:'Long Covid': Why are some people not recovering?
by tremon on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @02:17PM
(#24700731)
“fatigue” is one those symptoms that’s heavily affected by placebo/nocebo since it’s predominantly psychological.
Be very careful with how you phrase that. Fatigue is very much a physical thing, not psychological. It's just that medically, we have no way to quantify it, so it doesn't show up easily in lab tests. That does NOT mean it doesn't exist, or that it only exists in the head. (edit: and before someone says "lactate", keep in mind that that only measures muscle strain, one of the few forms of fatigue that we do know how to measure)
How people experience fatigue has a psychological component, but saying to someone who has been fatigued for years that their issues are predominantly psychological is very dismissive. Odds are they've been hearing that from their physicians for a long time already.
Be very careful with how you phrase that. Fatigue is very much a physical thing, not psychological. It's just that medically, we have no way to quantify it, so it doesn't show up easily in lab tests. That does NOT mean it doesn't exist, or that it only exists in the head. (edit: and before someone says "lactate", keep in mind that that only measures muscle strain, one of the few forms of fatigue that we do know how to measure)
How people experience fatigue has a psychological component, but saying to someone who has been fatigued for years that their issues are predominantly psychological is very dismissive. Odds are they've been hearing that from their physicians for a long time already.