Holmes-McCoid, Helena J, Lecky, Fiona E · Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026 · DOI
A systematic review of 21 qualitative studies found that long COVID patients reported experiencing significant shifts in how they view themselves, including grief over lost aspects of their former identity, changes in how others perceive them, and threats to their sense of self. However, some patients also reported experiences of growth and resilience following these identity challenges. This review highlights gaps in current clinical guidance for supporting the psychological aspects of long COVID, though it remains unclear how directly these findings apply to ME/CFS.
By analogy with ME/CFS, which is known to produce comparable psychological burden and self-identity rupture, this review identifies a clinically significant gap: current guidance lacks recommendations for identity-focused psychological interventions. For ME/CFS researchers and clinicians, the four-theme framework and the documented experiences of identity reconstruction may inform patient-centred psychosocial support models. However, direct relevance to ME/CFS remains to be established through dedicated empirical study.
This systematic review does not establish causation or mechanism—it does not prove that long COVID pathophysiology causes identity distress, nor does it demonstrate that identity work is a necessary or sufficient intervention. The findings do not generalise beyond the 613 qualitative study participants or to populations not represented in the included literature (e.g., non-Western cohorts, severe/very severe cases). This review does not compare identity experiences across post-infectious conditions, so claims about ME/CFS specificity are not supported.
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
Holmes-McCoid, Helena J & Lecky, Fiona E (2026). Exploring the influence of long COVID upon self-identity: a systematic literature review.. Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-026-02017-8
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-holmes-mccoid-2026-exploring-influence,
author = {Holmes-McCoid, Helena J and Lecky, Fiona E},
title = {Exploring the influence of long COVID upon self-identity: a systematic literature review.},
journal = {Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1186/s13690-026-02017-8},
note = {PubMed: 42638142},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/holmes-mccoid-2026-exploring-influence},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-09-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/holmes-mccoid-2026-exploring-influence
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