Nygren-Bonnier, Malin, Holland, Anne E · Journal of physiotherapy · 2026 · DOI
This study examines how physical therapy and rehabilitation approaches can help adults with long COVID manage their symptoms and improve function. The review looks at different physiotherapy strategies that healthcare providers use to treat long COVID patients. Understanding which approaches work best can help patients and doctors make better decisions about treatment options.
Long COVID affects millions of people and shares some overlapping symptoms with ME/CFS, including post-exertional malaise and fatigue. This review is important because it consolidates current knowledge about physiotherapy approaches, helping establish evidence-based rehabilitation strategies. For ME/CFS patients, understanding safe physiotherapy practices is critical, as inappropriate exercise can worsen symptoms.
As a narrative review (E3 evidence level), this study does not prove that any specific physiotherapy intervention is definitively effective for long COVID or ME/CFS. It does not establish causation or provide the rigorous experimental data that randomized controlled trials provide. The conclusions represent expert synthesis rather than new empirical evidence.
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 →
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