The largest clinical trial of long COVID care to date has found that specialist NHS long COVID services may help reduce fatigue, one of the condition's most common and disabling symptoms. The findings, published in Nature Medicine and led by researchers and clinicians from UCL and UCLH, come from the STIMULATE-ICP trial.
The study involved more than 1,100 people receiving care through six NHS long COVID clinics in England, making it the largest trial to evaluate different approaches to delivering long COVID care.
Researchers found that patients' fatigue improved during the first 12 weeks of specialist multidisciplinary care, regardless of whether they also received a specialist multi-organ MRI scan or a digital rehabilitation program.
Long COVID continues to affect millions of people and can have a profound impact on every aspect of daily life. For some patients, the condition can persist for years after the initial infection, affecting multiple organs and making it difficult to work, care for family or carry out everyday activities.
One of those patients is Dr. Anjali Chakraborty, a GP and mother of two, who developed long COVID after contracting COVID-19 in 2020. Five years later, she is still living with the condition but credits the support of the UCLH long COVID service with helping her regain parts of her life and return to work.
