Wildwing, Tamar, Holt, Nicole · Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2021 · DOI
This study reviewed 45 existing research papers about neurological symptoms people experience with COVID-19. Researchers found that some COVID-19 patients develop long-lasting symptoms like fatigue and muscle pain that look very similar to ME/CFS and other neurological conditions. The authors suggest that doctors may need better training to recognize and treat these ongoing symptoms, and that healthcare services may need more resources to help patients.
This work is significant for ME/CFS because it formally documents clinical and symptomatic parallels between Long COVID and ME/CFS, potentially validating patient experiences and creating opportunities for improved clinical recognition. The study suggests that increased awareness of post-viral neurological syndromes due to COVID-19 may shift healthcare professionals' understanding of conditions like ME/CFS, potentially improving diagnosis and care pathways for both populations.
This study does not establish causation or mechanistic pathways underlying Long COVID symptoms, nor does it prove that Long COVID and ME/CFS are identical conditions. As a secondary analysis of systematic reviews conducted early in the pandemic, it cannot confirm prevalence rates, natural history, or treatment efficacy for persistent symptoms. The work does not provide evidence about which patients will develop long-term neurological complications.
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
Wildwing, Tamar & Holt, Nicole (2021). The neurological symptoms of COVID-19: a systematic overview of systematic reviews, comparison with other neurological conditions and implications for healthcare services.. Therapeutic advances in chronic disease. https://doi.org/10.1177/2040622320976979
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wildwing-2021-neurological-symptoms,
author = {Wildwing, Tamar and Holt, Nicole},
title = {The neurological symptoms of COVID-19: a systematic overview of systematic reviews, comparison with other neurological conditions and implications for healthcare services.},
journal = {Therapeutic advances in chronic disease},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.1177/2040622320976979},
note = {PubMed: 33796241},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wildwing-2021-neurological-symptoms},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wildwing-2021-neurological-symptoms
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