Cognitive-behavioral therapy for patients with post-COVID-19 condition (CBT-PCC): a feasibility trial.

BACKGROUND: The post-COVID-19 condition describes the persistence or onset of somatic symptoms (e.g. fatigue) after acute COVID-19. Based on an existing cognitive-behavioral treatment protocol, we developed a specialized group intervention for individuals with post-COVID-19 condition. The present study examines the feasibility, acceptance, and effectiveness of the program for inpatients in a neurological rehabilitation setting. METHODS: The treatment program comprises eight sessions and includes psychoeducational and experience-based interventions on common psychophysiological mechanisms of persistent somatic symptoms. A feasibility trial was conducted using a one-group design in a naturalistic setting. N = 64 inpatients with a history of mild COVID-19 that fulfilled WHO criteria for post-COVID-19 condition were enrolled. After each session, evaluation forms were completed and psychometric questionnaires on somatic and psychopathological symptom burden were collected pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS: The treatment program was well received by participants and therapists. Each session was rated as comprehensible and overall satisfaction with the sessions was high. Pre-post effect sizes (of standard rehabilitation incl. new treatment program; intention-to-treat) showed significantly reduced subjective fatigue (p < 0.05, dav = 0.33) and improved disease coping (ps < 0.05, dav = 0.33-0.49). CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the feasibility and acceptance of the newly developed cognitive-behavioral group intervention for individuals with post-COVID-19 condition. Yet, findings have to be interpreted cautiously due to the lack of a control group and follow-up measurement, the small sample size, and a relatively high drop-out rate.

How to elicit a negative bias? Manipulating contrast and saturation with the facial emotion salience task.

Introduction: Emotion recognition impairments and a tendency to misclassify neutral faces as negative are common in schizophrenia. A possible explanation for these deficits is aberrant salience attribution. To explore the possibility of salience driven emotion recognition deficits, we implemented a novel facial emotion salience task (FEST). Methods: Sixty-six healthy participants with variations in psychometric schizotypy completed the FEST. In the FEST, we manipulated physical salience (FEST-1: contrast, FEST-2: saturation) of emotionally salient (positive, i.e., happy and negative, i.e., fearful) and non-salient (neutral) facial expressions. Results: When salience was high (increased contrast), participants recognized negative facial expressions faster, whereas neutral faces were recognized more slowly and were more frequently misclassified as negative. When salience was low (decreased saturation), positive expressions were recognized more slowly. These measures were not associated with schizotypy in our sample. Discussion: Our findings show that the match between physical and emotional salience influences emotion recognition and suggest that the FEST is suitable to simulate aberrant salience processing during emotion recognition in healthy participants.