Group Psychotherapy in Long COVID

Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen

Status: Completed

Conditions: COVID-19; Long COVID

Treatments: Behavioral: Group Psychotherapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06726772

PSOMA-2022-4

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the present study was to establish a single-arm group psychotherapy and to evaluate its clinical effectiveness in long COVID patients.

Full description

This study took place at the Cantonal Hospital St.Gallen, a tertiary care hospital in Eastern Switzerland, and included data collection between November 2021 and January 2024. During this time span, the same licensed psychotherapist conducted the group psychotherapy six times in total with a maximum of nine patients each. Each of the six groups had one-hour group therapy sessions weekly within eight consecutive weeks. During the study period, the group psychotherapy was part of a more comprehensive treatment for long COVID as all patients primarily received active pacing therapy.

The investigators implemented cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) elements into group psychotherapy and focused on fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, psychotraumatology, and quality of life as psychosomatic outcome measures (pre- and post-interventional).

Enrollment: 50 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Signed general consent form of the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen
• Adult patients (≥ 18 years of age)
• Long COVID diagnosis made as part of the long COVID consultation at the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen
• Screening for psychological stress and suitability for group therapy through an initial consultation with a psychotherapeutic specialist from the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen

Exclusion criteria

• Insufficient language skills for completing the questionnaires in German
• Refusal to sign the general consent form
• Severe mental disorders requiring an individualized setting, i.e. suicidal tendencies at the time of screening, acute psychosis and personality disorder

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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50 participants in 1 patient group

Intervention (Group Psychotherapy)

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Group Psychotherapy