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Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

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Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#111

Post by EA-3167 »

ddmf wrote: post #85

The main "long covid" symptom I really detest is the loss of smell/taste - after almost 2 years I still cannot smell or taste certain things, the worst being cinnamon in things like cinnamon grahams and cinnamon buns, strangely though I can taste the cinnamon fire jolly ranchers ok. I sound like I'm jesting, but I love food, and I'm a big fan of scent too - things just don't smell or taste right anymore. SSRIs can ca…

I saw this article on Nature and thought of you: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03244-7

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#112

Post by btheunissen »

thenerdhead wrote: post #32

For people who are obviously ignorant of long covid in this thread, go read these publications and watch these videos: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01601-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06651-y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z189Z7tS1w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYNMzaZk_iU The researchers here have a specific hypothesis…

I’d been suffering from some “depression lite” symptoms, mostly generalized anxiety since 2020, maybe long covid, who knows, and a reasonably small prescription of Xoloft has had a huge change in my mood/life.

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#113

Post by PathOfEclipse »

VikingCoder wrote: post #100

I still think about the HN commentor who told me confidently, "there is no theoretical basis for long-term consequences of COVID-19." [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23875391

Thanks for pointing me to that comment so I could upvote it. His comment is not accurate in that there are plenty of theories, but the general idea behind the claim is far more accurate than what probably many that frequent HN believe about long COVID. Long COVID is poorly understood and the research around it has overall been inconclusive, and much of it very low-quality:

https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/long-covid-kills-sad...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqAjrMNN-Vs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4NqsU-Dk9A

https://www.dailywire.com/news/taxpayer-funded-1-billion-lon...

Even the linked article has a bunch of caveats like:

Joanna Hellmuth, a cognitive neurologist and clinical researcher at UC, San Francisco, who has collaborated with some of the authors but was not involved in the current study, questions the paper’s focus on the hippocampus. She notes there’s currently little evidence the typical cognitive symptoms of Long Covid are linked to memory encoding in this brain region. Although the results are interesting, in her view, “the model they’re testing doesn’t reflect the clinical condition.”

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#114

Post by marsupial »

thenerdhead wrote: post #32

For people who are obviously ignorant of long covid in this thread, go read these publications and watch these videos: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01601-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06651-y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z189Z7tS1w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYNMzaZk_iU The researchers here have a specific hypothesis…

[flagged]

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#115

Post by CWuestefeld »

thenerdhead wrote: post #106
CWuestefeld wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why folks think long covid isn’t real? Most disease have long lasting effects. Why not covid? Without endorsing this one way or another: that's precisely the argument. There does exist a general "post viral syndrome". Since that is already known, why jump to the conclusion that a separate post-covid syndrome exists, as opposed to this just being another example of the same?

Because there are different pathogens at play…

That might turn out to be a pivotal argument. But as it is, it proves too much: it denies the existence of a general post-viral syndrome. Since we do know that viruses, as a general phenomenon, can lead to effects like what are being reported, the default assumption ought to be that this is just one more such example. From there, researchers could attempt to show that this is (or is not) qualitatively different.

Skipping a known likely cause to search for something more specific seems like a potentially much more difficult path, and by pursuing it this way it also seems likely to miss out on the possibility of helping those suffering from post-viral syndrome that's not connected to covid.

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#116

Post by rubatuga »

marsupial wrote: post #114
thenerdhead wrote: post #32

For people who are obviously ignorant of long covid in this thread, go read these publications and watch these videos: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01601-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06651-y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z189Z7tS1w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYNMzaZk_iU The researchers here have a specific hypothesis…

[flagged]

I think it's quite unfair to automatically believe or not believe people based on demographic.

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#117

Post by marsupial »

rubatuga wrote: post #116
marsupial wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I think it's quite unfair to automatically believe or not believe people based on demographic.

I think it makes a lot of sense tbh if one demographic lies more often. But if I know more about them than demographic, I use that info too. For example,

There was a study on this by okcupid where they found 80% of white women who claimed they were bisexual only matched with one sex. The percentage was lower for other races.

It's astrology (the white woman "science") all over again, except this time for mental illnesses.

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#118

Post by somedude895 »

throwaway6977 wrote: post #72
local_crmdgeon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We over diagnose. It's taboo to discuss the fact that population is tumblr/twitter types, and not people that are well adjusted. It's a contagion, but it's not spread by a virus. Most people with Long COVID recover through increased exercise and improved diet. They're just depressed, which is of course a real illness, but it's more to do with burn out from social media hysteria. Any mention of this on HN results in i…

You get down voted because there are thousands of people suffering from real physical symptoms of this - like clots and tachycardia - and you are waving away the symptoms as a mental illness. What a joke; I hope no one ever does that to you.

> real physical symptoms of this - like clots and tachycardia

I think what GP was talking about when saying overdiagnoses was LC diagnoses where no physical symptoms are present.

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#119

Post by thenerdhead »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #115
thenerdhead wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there are different pathogens at play…

That might turn out to be a pivotal argument. But as it is, it proves too much: it denies the existence of a general post-viral syndrome. Since we do know that viruses, as a general phenomenon, can lead to effects like what are being reported, the default assumption ought to be that this is just one more such example. From there, researchers could attempt to show that this is (or is not) qualitatively different. Skip…

Let's back up.

Post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS) is an umbrella term. Many fall under this. Long flu(not new, but new research suggests the phenomenon based on long covid research), long rsv(not new, just more recognized when kids get it and develop asthma later in life), long covid, etc. Larger list here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01810-6/tables/1

Researchers are actively pursuing PAIS and the research being done for long covid is making breakthroughs in PAIS and PAIS populations like ME/CFS. It has become so prevalent that this year there have been multiple centers focusing on it. EX:

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/post-acute-infection-...

Nobody is skipping likely causes, if anything we are driving forward today on hypotheses that could help all PAIS (i.e. viral persistence, autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, reactivation of latent viruses).

Re: Low serotonin levels might explain some Long Covid symptoms, study proposes

#120

Post by rokkitmensch »

mcpackieh wrote: post #91
veidr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, and I just now realized the crux of why I was so miffed by that change. It indeed helped me better understand (while skimming)... but only for those topics that I don't enough about to make my own judgements. I undersand the reasons to do it, also, but I think you clearly elucidate what was lost... (T_T)

Vote counts indicate post popularity with the subset of users who are in the thread, they don't indicate truth. Post that there's no verifiable empirical evidence for aliens in a thread about Navy pilots spinning tall tales and you'll get a lower post score than the people saying that Navy pilots are unimpeachable founts of truth who would never lie, much less get confused. All this reflects is the fact that people w…

If only we had some way to weight votes from folks we liked!
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