The treatment recommendations are more in-depth for specific long-COVID conditions including headache, cranial neuropathies, sleep disturbances, and neuropathies.
The guidance includes a special statement on the importance of ensuring equitable access to care. Underserved, marginalized, and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities had notably higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death with less access to rehabilitation services before the pandemic, said Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, chair of the department of rehabilitation medicine at Long School of Medicine, UT Health San Antonio, and a guideline coauthor.
“We know that these communities have been historically underserved, that there’s already access issues, and that they’re disproportionately impacted by the pandemic,” said Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez. “This continues as patients develop PASC, or long COVID,” she said, adding that these individuals are still less likely to receive rehabilitation services. “This can lead to poorer outcomes and widened disparities.”
The AAPM&R PASC Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative has previously issued consensus guidance on fatigue, breathing discomfort and respiratory distress, cognitive symptoms, cardiovascular complications, pediatrics, and autonomic dysfunction, and will be publishing guidance on mental health soon.
The collaborative is also putting together a compilation of all the guidance – “a ‘greatest hits’ if you like,” said Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez.
For clinicians who are unaccustomed to caring for patients with long COVID, the hope is that this new guidance will help them manage the condition, Dr. Rydberg said.
The guidance was written with the support of the AAPM&R. Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez and two coauthors have disclosed grants, contracts, or honoraria from various funding sources, some paid to their institutions and some personal reimbursement for activities related to PASC and broader areas of research and expertise. However, none of the authors have any conflicts relative to the work on the guidance.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.