According to a recent study in Chronic Stress, people who have experienced traumatic stress are more likely to develop persistent symptoms after a COVID-19 infection. This finding may suggest new approaches in treating long COVID and other post-viral syndromes, which significantly hinder people’s quality of life. 
 
The study began before the COVID-19 pandemic, with two observations. Rebecca Hendrickson, MD, PhD, noticed that many of her patients with post-traumatic stress disorder also had autonomic symptoms including high blood pressure, heart palpitations, and chronic nausea. At the same time, John Oakley, MD, PhD, in the UW Department of Neurology, recognized that many of his patients with autonomic symptoms had a history of traumatic stress. 
 
As the pandemic took hold and people began reporting persistent symptoms after their COVID-19 infections, Dr. Hendrickson and Dr. Oakley realized it was a chance to study whether exposure to traumatic stress and autonomic symptoms were connected.  
 
Their investigation, part of the larger Seattle RECOVER study, found that having experienced traumatic stress increased the likelihood and severity of autonomic symptoms after COVID-19 infection. Past traumatic stress appeared to intensify people’s responses to stressors such as a COVID-19 infection, possibly through long-term changes in stress-threat response systems.   
 
The psychiatric symptoms didn’t cause the autonomic ones, nor vice versa. Rather, Dr. Hendrickson suggests, traumatic stress or viral infections likely changed both systems in parallel, and those changes reinforced each other. 
 
This work – supported by an Innovation Grant from the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions – has bridged the traditional separation among researchers in mental and physical health, underscoring the need for cross-department collaboration.
 
Read the full story at UW Medicine Newsroom