Psychosomatic, Physical Activity or Both for Post-covid19 Syndrom

Randomized Comparison of a Telemedicine-supported Psychosomatic Intervention, a Physical Activity Intervention and the Combination of Both in Patients With Post-covid19 Syndrom.

Post-Covid(PoC)-patients with fatigue symptoms respond very differently to physical rehabilitation programs. While PoC-patients with psychological symptoms benefit little from physical interventions, fatigue and exercise capacity improves significantly without the presence of psychological symptoms. RCT studies on effects of psychotherapy or the combination of phsical activity with psychotherapy in PoC are not yet available. Therefore, the aim is to investigate the unimodal effects of psychotherapy and exercise therapy or the combination of both on fatigue in PoC patients with fatigue in a randomized clinical trial. Patients will be assigned to the three intervention groups (psychotherapy, physical rehabilitation, combination of both) stratified for sex, gender and BMI status.

The intervention duration is 3 months with therapeutic online sessions for 50 min every 2 weeks. After another 3 months without intervention, the sustainability will evaluated. Secondarily, the investigators analyzes which patient benefits most from which therapeutic approach and seek for specific predictors of patient´s individual response.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients aged over 18 and
• diagnosed post-Covid-19 syndrome: (positive PCR or antibody test) and Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) ≥ 22 points

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current participation in another intervention study
• Illnesses or functional disorders that potentially explain the fatigue symptoms otherwise
• Any illness or impairment that the examining physician judges to preclude participation in a physical training intervention
• Suicidality or severe mental illness (e.g. mania, acute phase of schizophrenia) that requires acute treatment.