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Our paper is out- a critical essay (🇩🇪 language): What is the Role of "the Psyche"? Long COVID and ME/CFS as Test Cases for Evidence-Based and Patient-Centered Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. @geschom Mirja Lisa Nicolas, Fabian Fritz, Ronja Büchner thieme-connect.de/products/ejour…

@rajendr15119669 @ompsychiatrist What about accountability?

Right perceptive 👍

If replicated, these data raise testable hypotheses: could targeting HHV-6 (with antivirals, for example) alleviate a subset of Long COVID? Salivary virome profiling may help identify biologically distinct subgroups who might benefit from tailored interventions. (4/)

@VirusesImmunity @LeyingGuan @PutrinoLab @polybioRF Are you also planning to look into recurrent shingles reactivation in LC? Some of us keep getting shingles repeatedly despite no obvious classic risk factors (eg HIV or immunosuppressive therapy). As far as I can tell, the literature mostly focuses on single episodes after C-19.

This is an observational study and not proof of causality, but it highlights a mechanism worth pursuing in longitudinal cohorts and interventional trials. As always, this study is a collaboration with amazing people, including @LeyingGuan @PutrinoLab 🙏🏼@polybioRF for funding

Is there an association between human herpesviruses (HHVs) reactivation and Long COVID? We analyzed HHV DNA shedding in saliva and found that HHV-6 correlates with Long COVID severity. Claire Laxton, @S_Tabachnikova, Lily Cooke, Kexin Wang et al. medrxiv.org/content/10.648… (1/)

A study of mostly unvaccinated Brazilian patients infected during the first COVID-19 wave found that #LongCOVID may be driven less by abnormal antibody responses and more by persistent dysfunction of CD4+ T cells. ➡️ While overall antibody levels and T-cell distributions were similar between LongCOVID and recovered individuals, single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that LongCOVID patients had ongoing immune activation signatures weeks after infection. 1/

We have known for a while that #LongCOVID pathobiology for many involves reactivation of various herpesviruses. As we continue to validate this it is great to see this work coming out in collaboration with @VirusesImmunity’s incredible team. Here we medrxiv.org/content/10.648… 1/

Mast cell driven remodeling of pulmonary immune & stromal landscapes:Under C-19 conditions, an unexpected increase in MC interaction with elastic extracellular matrix fibers & localized tryptase release -new insights into tissue tensometry & ECM remodeling nature.com/articles/s4159…

Wichtiges Urteil zur Kostenübernahme von NEM, Vitaminen etc. durch die GKV. Es handelt sich zwar nicht um einen Fall von ME/CFS, aber die Argumentation dürfte für viele ME/CFS-Betroffene passen. Wohl noch nicht rechtskräftig, da erst am 28.04.26 ergangen. landessozialgericht.niedersachsen.de/startseite/akt…

Nach etlichen Fachgesprächen und unserem letzten Austausch am Mittwoch, den 20. Mai, mit MdB Stephan Albani zur Nationalen Dekade gegen postinfektiöse Erkrankungen verabschiedet sich unser Social-Media-Team nun in die wohlverdiente Sommerpause. Wie euch sicherlich allen aufgefallen ist, schaffen es manche medizinischen „Experten“ leider auch nach Jahrzehnten noch immer nicht, die fünf Buchstaben für Myalgische Enzephalomyelitis / Chronisches Fatigue-Syndrom aneinanderzureihen. Aber gut. Bis wir zurück sind, kann man das ja weiter üben. ME/CFS‼️ Wir hoffen derweil, dass die Besetzung der Expertengremien, Steuerungskreise, Lenkungsausschüsse, Arbeitskreise und Fachrunden künftig dem tatsächlichen wissenschaftlichen, evidenzbasierten und klinischen Anspruch dieser Erkrankung sowie den inzwischen beschriebenen Pathomechanismen gerecht wird und Patientenorganisationen mit entsprechendem Vetorecht beteiligt werden, damit wissenschaftliche Prioritäten, Versorgungsrealitäten und Forschungsgelder künftig evidenzbasiert, patientenzentriert und klinisch sachgerecht adressiert werden. Sommerpause vom 23. Mai bis 28. Juni. PS: Für alle, die bereits Termine, Gespräche oder Austauschformate mit uns vereinbart haben: Selbstverständlich laufen diese intern weiter.

@NichtGenesen 👇🔥

Congratulations to Dear @Malala Yousafzai for dedicating her award at the Hay Festival to Afghan girls banned from education for more than 1,700 days. Thank you for standing with Afghan girls and raising their voices. #LetAfghanGirlsLearn #EndGenderApartheid

Afghan women, children and men continue to be pushed out of countries where they had sought safety, forcing them to return to Afghanistan against their will and exposing them to grave risk. #StopNormalozationsWithTaliban #EU #UN

@NichtGenesen @bmftr_bund @bioeg_de @s_schwartze @SilkeLaunert @MatthiasHauer @Karl_Lauterbach @BMG_Bund @ninawarken @DoroBaer @DGPs_DPPD @DZG_Forschen @aend_de @aerztezeitung @Dt_Aerzteblatt @DocCheck Link zum Essay 👇

Psychologin aus Leidenschaft ⬇️ linkedin.com/posts/gudrun-l… @bmftr_bund @bioeg_de @s_schwartze @SilkeLaunert @MatthiasHauer

@RobWust @ISLCPAIS Very exciting- thank you for extending the deadline! Working on submitting an abstract 🙏.

Our long covid conference in Amsterdam @ISLCPAIS in August is attracting attention, with around 160 abstracts and session speakers, so far! You can still submit and register! Islc-pais.org for more information

@ompsychiatrist @Molbaas Secundum cavere is on one side only.

@Molbaas Not really

As a psychiatrist, patient and expert on the topic, I respectfully disagree. These bothsideisms are just a (subconscious) way of clinicians to avoid their evident loyalty-conflicts. It is not about blame, it's about stopping the harm and realizing this isn't cutting it.1/6

In therapist-speak: Positive countertransference and conflict avoidance are many a therapist's weak point, certainly when it comes to decades of harms hidden behind an 'effective' psychotherapeutic veil of good intentions, internalized narcissism and worse. 6/6

@neurostingl @2018_petra Sprache schafft Wahrheit. Das CFS wurde an ME dran gehängt mit dem Zweck zu psychologisieren. Sich davon zu befreien ist ja per se ne gute Idee. Selbst manche Experten sagen ME/CSF. Also weg damit.

Und abseits von ideologischer Psychologisierung bleibt die Tatsache bestehen, dass das Akronym ME/CFS mit einer schwerwiegenden klinischen Symptomatik verbunden ist. Alle hätten gerne einen besseren Namen, viel wichtiger wären aber erstmal normale Versorgung und Forschung.

Die Delegitimierung von ME/CFS über den Namen ist ein Klassiker. Ironisch aber, wenn es von einem Tropenmediziner kommt. Behandelt man Malaria jetzt auch mit positivem Denken weil der Name die Pathophysiologie nicht abbildet? Über das deppate CFS regt sich wieder keiner auf...

Emoji summary of what was interesting to me 🩸 Across 6 papers, microclots emerged as real, measurable and potentially reversible, offering a biomarker for Long COVID treatment trials. 🦠 SARS-CoV-2 signals in intestinal cells suggest persistent viral material may help drive ongoing gut immune disruption in Long COVID. 🧬 Gut organoids reveal how genetic variants may disrupt intestinal barrier and immune function. 💊 Maraviroc plus pravastatin improved gut symptoms in early findings, while larazotide was linked to improved fatigue, gut and circulation symptoms. Both need further trials. 🐒 In monkeys, the ileum may harbor persistent SARS-CoV-2 alongside ongoing immune activation. 🐈 In feline infectious peritonitis, immune cells may help harbor and spread coronavirus. 🛡️ In Long COVID, at least 40% showed T-cell evidence of possible persistent viral material, while virus specific T-cells also showed stronger cell killing signals. 💦 Microfluidic testing detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in some people with Long COVID and after recovery. 🔄 In 19 adults with Long COVID, MENSA biomarker status shifted over 180 days during an ongoing antiviral feasibility trial. 🧪 VIPER is testing 6 assay programs and plans to analyze more than 440 samples from blood, fluids and gut tissue to investigate viral persistence. 🫀 SARS-CoV-2 RNA in artery plaques may help sustain inflammation and worsen atherosclerosis. 📸 PET imaging may help track tissue immune activation and treatment response in Long COVID. 🦠 In chronic infection models, macrophages and other myeloid cells in the intestine and lung may harbor virus after acute infection. Depleting these cells cleared viral reservoirs. 🧠 In CCI patients, disrupted cerebrospinal fluid flow may impair clearance of metabolites and chronic antigen, potentially fueling brain inflammation and neurological symptoms.

@ompsychiatrist Short English summary of our paper (will be soon published in English too). x.com/mecfsskeptic/s…

As a psychiatrist I see this regularly - patients with ME/CFS, Long COVID and hEDS who have real trauma from being dismissed and disbelieved by doctors for years. Their pain is genuine. I do have a problem though with the term 'clinician-associated traumatization' (here iatrogenic/Medical PTSD). It feels like it is making clinicians as 'the enemy'. A big part of the problem is the honest uncertainty these conditions create as they often lack clear biomarkers and are difficult to diagnose. We need more empathy and better training on both sides instead of blame.

4:20 pm ET—Mario Murakami shared preliminary data showing altered cerebrospinal fluid drainage from the brain in Craniocervical Instability patients when compared to healthy controls. This dysfunction of CSF flow is a likely driver of neuroinflammation, brain fog, fatigue & dysautonomia due to impaired removal of brain waste products, as per the lab team’s model of disease.