Comparison of the symptom networks of long‐Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome

The objective was to compare the symptom networks of long‐COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in conjunction with other theoretically relevant diagnoses in order to provide insight into the etiology of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). This was a cross‐sectional comparison of questionnaire items between six groups identified by clinical diagnosis. All participants completed a 65‐item psychological and somatic symptom questionnaire (GSQ065). Diagnostically labelled groups were long‐COVID ( N = 107), CFS ( N = 254), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, N = 369), fibromyalgia ( N = 1,127), severe asthma ( N = 100) and healthy group ( N = 207). The 22 symptoms that best discriminated between the six groups were selected for network analysis. Connectivity, fragmentation and number of symptom clusters (statistically related symptoms) were assessed. Compared to long‐COVID, the symptom networks of CFS, IBS and fibromyalgia had significantly lower connectivity, greater fragmentation and more symptom clusters. The number of clusters varied between 9 for CFS and 3 for severe asthma, and the content of clusters varied across all groups. Of the 33 symptom clusters identified over the six groups 30 clusters were unique. Although the symptom networks of long‐COVID and CFS differ, the variation of cluster content across the six groups is inconsistent with a modular causal structure but consistent with a connectionist (network, parallel distributed processing) biological basis of MUS. A connectionist structure would explain why symptoms overlap and merge between different functional somatic syndromes, the failure to discover a biological diagnostic test and how psychological and behavioral interventions are therapeutic

Arousal · Chronic fatigue syndrome · Comorbidity · Etiology · Fibromyalgia · Irritable bowel syndrome · Medical diagnosis · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Clinical Psychology · Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research · Medicine · Mental Health Research Topics · Neuroscience · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

• The Psychology of Physical Symptoms

  Open Access•James W Pennebaker•Psychology of Physical Symptoms•1982

  Añadir item

• Maps of random walks on complex networks reveal community structure

  Open Access•Martin Rosvall, Carl T Bergstrom•Proceedings of the National…•2008

  Añadir item

• Functional Somatic Syndromes

  Open Access•Arthur J Barsky, Jonathan F Borus•Annals of Internal Medicine•1999

  Añadir item

• Fatigue and cognitive impairment in Post-Covid-19 Syndrome

  Open Access•Felicia Ceban, Susan Ling et al.•Brain, Behavior, and Immunity•2022

  Añadir item

• Exploratory graph analysis

  Open Access•Hudson F Golino, Hudson Golino et al.•PLoS ONE•2017

  Añadir item

• Computing Communities in Large Networks Using Random Walks

  Pascal Pons, Matthieu Latapy•Computer and Information Sciences…•2005

  Añadir item

• MGM

  Open Access•Jonas M B Haslbeck, Lourens Waldorp et al.•Journal of Statistical Software•2020

  Añadir item

• Functional somatic syndromes

  Open Access•Simon Wessely, Chaichana Nimnuan et al.•The Lancet•1999

  Añadir item

• Estimating psychological networks and their accuracy

  Open Access•Sacha Epskamp, Denny Borsboom et al.•Behavior Research Methods•2018

  Añadir item

• Network Analysis

  Denny Borsboom, Angélique O J Cramer•Annual Review of Clinical…•2013

  Añadir item

• An Exploratory Study of Subgrouping of Patients With Functional Somatic Syndrome Based on the Psychophysiological Stress Response

  Kenji Kanbara, Mikihiko Fukunaga et al.•Psychosomatic Medicine•2007

  Añadir item

• Network Analysis of Symptoms Co-Occurrence in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  Open Access•Sławomir Kujawski, Joanna Słomko et al.•International Journal of…•2021

  Añadir item