Busatto, Geraldo F, de Araujo, Adriana Ladeira, Castaldelli-Maia, João Mauricio et al. · Psychological medicine · 2022 · DOI
Researchers studied 749 people who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and assessed them 6-11 months later. They found that 30 different symptoms—including fatigue, brain fog, depression, and anxiety—tend to occur together as part of one underlying condition. People with more severe symptoms also showed signs of ongoing inflammation in their blood and had greater physical disability, suggesting a real biological basis for their illness.
This study provides statistical and biological evidence that post-COVID symptoms form a coherent syndrome underpinned by systemic inflammation, validating patient experiences and supporting the existence of a measurable physiological condition. For ME/CFS researchers, the methodology of using latent trait modeling to uncover hidden biological patterns offers a valuable framework for understanding symptom clustering in other post-viral illnesses.
This cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or determine whether inflammation drives symptom severity or vice versa. The study examined post-COVID patients specifically; findings may not directly translate to ME/CFS, which has different epidemiology and may involve distinct pathophysiological mechanisms. The study also does not establish optimal treatments or long-term outcomes beyond the 6-11 month follow-up window.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Busatto, Geraldo F, de Araujo, Adriana Ladeira, Castaldelli-Maia, João Mauricio, Damiano, Rodolfo Furlan, Imamura, Marta, Guedes, Bruno F, et al. (2022). Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: relationship of central nervous system manifestations with physical disability and systemic inflammation.. Psychological medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001374
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-busatto-2022-post-acute,
author = {Busatto, Geraldo F and de Araujo, Adriana Ladeira and Castaldelli-Maia, João Mauricio and Damiano, Rodolfo Furlan and Imamura, Marta and Guedes, Bruno F and de Rezende Pinna, Fabio and Sawamura, Marcio Valente Yamada and Mancini, Márcio C and da Silva, Katia R and Garcia, Michelle L and Sumita, Nairo and Brunoni, Andre Russowsky and da Silva Duarte, Alberto J and Burdmann, Emmanuel A and Kallas, Esper G and Cerri, Giovanni G and Nitrini, Ricardo and Bento, Ricardo F and Rocha, Vanderson Geraldo and de Souza, Heraldo Possolo and Miguel, Euripedes C and de Carvalho, Carlos R R and Forlenza, Orestes V and Batistella, Linamara Rizzo and HCFMUSP Covid-19 Study Group},
title = {Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: relationship of central nervous system manifestations with physical disability and systemic inflammation.},
journal = {Psychological medicine},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1017/S0033291722001374},
note = {PubMed: 35521752},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/busatto-2022-post-acute},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/busatto-2022-post-acute
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.