By David Tuller, DrPH
David Putrino is a neuroscientist and physical therapist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He runs a research lab and a rehabilitation center that quickly became a magnet for patients grappling with what has come to be known as long Covid–what the US National Institutes of Health calls post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). We spoke today about his background and how he began treating long Covid patients, the symptom of post-exertional malaise, the tendency to psychologize medical conditions like long Covid and ME/CFS, etc.
post-exertional malaise
Trial By Error: More on the REGAIN Trial for Long Covid Patients
By David Tuller, DrPH
*April is crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley. If you like my work, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Berkeley’s School of Public Health to support the Trial By Error project: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/31347
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I wrote recently about the problematic REGAIN study from the University of Warwick, which is testing an exercise-and-psychological-rehab program as a treatment for long Covid patients. Unfortunately, neither the protocol nor the participant information sheet, to which participants are referred during the consenting process, mentions the core ME/CFS symptom of post-exertional malaise (PEM), which has also been reported in long Covid.
The FAQ does mention PEM. However, since patients are not required to read the FAQ, there is no guarantee that those currently enrolling in this study will know or have heard anything about this potential risk. Moreover, the FAQ suggests that PEM likely impacts only a “small set” of long Covid patients but provides no evidence to back up this claim. In fact, surveys have indicated that many long Covid patients experience PEM—not just a “small set” of them.
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