Which of the following is the most appropriate treatment option for patients with long COVID in urgent care?
- Prescribe corticosteroids
- Refer the patient for cognitive behavioral therapy
- Recommend that the patient limit physical activity until symptoms resolve
- None of these
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Answer: D. Long COVID may present with a diverse array of symptoms, and treatment is supportive/symptomatic. There are currently no evidence-based recommendations for general management of long COVID, and recommendations for specific manifestations are based on limited data. Long COVID is a diagnosis of exclusion, which is unlikely to be made in urgent care. In the urgent care setting, patients should be evaluated and treated for their acute symptoms and referred for additional evaluation or follow-up if needed.
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Tracey Davidoff, MD, FACP, FCUCM, has practiced Urgent Care Medicine for more than 15 years. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Davidoff is a member of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the College of Urgent Care Medicine’s “Urgent Caring” publication. She is also the Vice President of the Southeast Regional Urgent Care Association and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. At EB Medicine, Dr Davidoff is Editor-In-Chief of Evidence-Based Urgent Care, and co-host of the Urgentology podcast.
