Küst, Jutta, Disko, Andreas, Calendo, Luigi Riccardo et al. · Praxis · 2023
This guideline explains how to help people recover from post-COVID illness, which can cause lasting fatigue and memory problems that make it hard to work or manage daily life. Since there is no cure yet, treatment focuses on rehabilitation that is tailored to each patient's symptoms and goals, with special attention to gradually rebuilding activity while watching for post-exertional malaise—a worsening of symptoms after physical or mental effort. The approach involves multiple healthcare professionals working together to adjust the workload based on how the patient is doing over time.
This guideline is directly relevant to ME/CFS because post-COVID conditions share significant phenotypic overlap with ME/CFS, particularly regarding exertional intolerance and post-exertional malaise. The emphasis on cautious, individualized activity management and avoidance of harm from overexertion provides evidence-informed principles applicable to both conditions. Recognition that fatigue and cognitive dysfunction are central rehabilitation targets validates these as primary outcome domains in ME/CFS research and care.
This guideline does not establish the etiology of post-COVID disease or prove the efficacy of specific rehabilitation interventions through randomized trials. It does not differentiate post-COVID from ME/CFS or other fatigue-related conditions, nor does it provide quantitative outcome data on recovery rates. The lack of causal therapeutic approaches acknowledged in the abstract means no proven disease-modifying treatments are documented.
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
Küst, Jutta, Disko, Andreas, Calendo, Luigi Riccardo, & Bujan, Bartosz (2023). [Post-COVID Rehabilitation].. Praxis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37823813/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kst-2023-post-covid,
author = {Küst, Jutta and Disko, Andreas and Calendo, Luigi Riccardo and Bujan, Bartosz},
title = {[Post-COVID Rehabilitation].},
journal = {Praxis},
year = {2023},
note = {PubMed: 37823813},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kst-2023-post-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kst-2023-post-covid
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