Fatigue >12 weeks after coronavirus disease (COVID) is associated with reduced reward sensitivity during effort-based decision making

Abstract

BackgroundFatigue and depressive mood is inherent to acute disease, but a substantial group of people report persisting disabling fatigue and depressive symptoms long after a COVID infection. Acute infections have shown to change decisions to engage in effortful and rewarding activities, but it is currently unclear whether fatigue and depressive symptoms similarly affect decision making during acute and persistent phases of a COVID infection. Here, we investigated whether fatigue and depressive mood are associated with altered weighting of effort and reward in decision-making during different timepoints after COVID infection. MethodsWe conducted an online cross-sectional study between March 2021 and March 2022. 242 Participants (18-65 years) with COVID 12 weeks ago (n=81), or no prior COVID (self-reported) (n=90) performed an effort-based decision-making task, in which they decided whether they wanted to exert physical effort (ticking boxes on screen, 5 levels) for reward (money to be gained in a voucher-lottery, 5 levels). State fatigue and depressive mood was measured by the Profile of Mood States (POMS) prior to the task. We used multilevel binomial regression analysis to test whether fatigue and depressive mood were related to acceptance rates for effort and reward levels and whether this differed between the groups. ResultsCompared with no COVID and COVID 12 weeks group reported higher state fatigue scores (mean{+/-}SD: 20{+/-}7 vs. 14{+/-}7 and 12{+/-}6 POMS-score, respectively; both p12 weeks group, fatigue was more negatively associated with reward sensitivity compared with the COVID 12 weeks group (Age*Reward: OR 0.30 (95%CI 0.19, 0.48), p12 weeks after COVID, suggesting potential reward deficits in post-covid fatigue. These findings are in line with previous observations that long-term inflammation can induce dysregulations in neural reward processing, which should be further investigated in future studies. HighlightsO_LIWe tested if fatigue and mood were related to altered decision making post-COVID C_LIO_LIParticipants post-COVID >12wks ago were more fatigued and less reward sensitive C_LIO_LIPost-COVID-related fatigue was associated with reduced reward sensitivity C_LIO_LIPost-COVID-related depressive mood was not associated with altered decision making C_LIO_LIHigher age, unhealthy lifestyle, and worrying predicted reward deficits C_LI