POTS & COVID-19 Long Haulers

Earn 1 hour of continuing education by joining OT Potential after taking this course.

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google

The struggles of COVID-19 long haulers have caught the attention of the medical community. In many cases, symptoms seem to correlate with a little-known condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). But, even before the pandemic called attention to POTS, research and advancements in treatment were taking place in the background. Unfortunately, while the research is out there, POTS is not always understood by health providers, and proper diagnosis can take years.

Occupational therapy has a potentially significant role to play in the lives of both POTS patients and COVID-19 long haulers.

In this month’s hour-long podcast episode, we are lucky enough to talk to POTS researcher and practicing clinician, Emily Rich. We discuss what we do and don’t know about POTS, as well as the strategies you can use to help these patients get the most out of life. 

Primary Research Explored

When you log in, be sure to check out the OT Potential Club’s written breakdown of the following research article, then share your questions and thoughts with fellow practitioners.

• Daily Life Experiences: Challenges, Strategies, and Implications for Therapy in Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

Secondary Research 

• Exercise and non-pharmacological treatment of POTS 
• 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study 
• Management of post-acute covid-19 in primary care

Resources Mentioned in the Episode

• Dysautonomia International 

• Facebook group: Therapists Treating POTS
• Johns Hopkins: Bouncing Back from Covid-19 
• ACRM (Dec 2020): What Now for Rehabilitation Specialists? Coronavirus Disease 2019 Questions and Answers

Learning Objectives

1. You will be able to recall 5 areas of difficulty for many POTS patients.
2. You will be able to summarize 5 categories of treatment strategies used by POTS patients.

Agenda

Intro (5 minutes)

Breakdown and analysis of journal article (10 minutes)

• What is POTS?
• What was the purpose of this study?
• What are the common difficulties reported by POTS patients?
• What are the common management strategies used by POTS patients? 
• What were the clinical implications of the study?
• What else was discussed?

Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with guest Emily Rich) (45 minutes)

• How do you define POTS when speaking with a patient?
• What information do you typically seek to gather in an eval with a patient with POTS?
• What are common strategies you use with your patients?
• How do you coordinate your care with the larger healthcare team?

COVID and POTS

• As a researcher, what are you seeing as the connection between COVID-19 and POTS?
• Can you tell us what OTs in the clinic are seeing in COVID-19 long haulers?
• Should their care look different than a POTS patient who has not had COVID-19? 
• What resources would you recommend for listeners who are interested in diving deeper into this topic?

Target Audience/Educational Level

Occupational therapy practitioners who work with patients who have POTS. The educational level is introductory.

Financial and Non-financial Disclosures

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

We here at OT Potential have no financial stake in this topic. Our guest, Emily Rich, has no financial interest in this topic to disclose.

Speakers

Emily Rich, OTR/L

Emily is an occupational therapist serving adolescents and adults in a medical outpatient therapy setting at Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona.

She specializes in treating individuals with chronic conditions, including forms of dysautonomia such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and hypermobility, persistent pain, and Parkinson’s Disease. She places a high value on patient-partnered, evidenced-based treatment. Emily is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in occupational therapy at Texas Woman’s University. Her research centers around POTS and rehabilitation therapy, specifically exploring treatment options for cognitive rehabilitation. Read full bio.

Sarah Lyon, OTR/L

Sarah’s passion is helping fellow OT practitioners translate evidence into daily practice. Sarah earned her BA in religion from St. Olaf College, then earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2011.

Since then, she’s worked in numerous facilities, including a critical access hospital, an acute trauma hospital, and a state inpatient psychiatric hospital. Sarah is the founder/owner of OT Potential. Read more about OT Potential here.

This course was designed to meet your continuing education requirements

We designed the courses in the Club to meet the requirements for “online” and “independent/self-study” courses. To verify the requirements from your specific state (within the US), check out our post, OT Continuing Education Requirements. If you are outside of the United States and have questions, please contact us.

We are proud to be an AOTA Approved Provider and to meet the requirements for your NBCOT renewal.

---

See our other OT courses!