NCT06726772

Group Psychotherapy in Long COVID

Post-COVID-19 Symptom Burden: Effects of an Outpatient Group Psychotherapy in Long COVID Patients

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (actual)
• Sponsor: Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

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

Detailed 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).

Conditions

• Long COVID
• COVID-19

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Group Psychotherapy	Group psychotherapy based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) elements

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-11-01
• Primary completion: 2024-01-31
• Completion: 2024-01-31
• First posted: 2024-12-10
• Last updated: 2025-02-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland