“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Post-Covid Patients: Effectiveness and Benefits”

In recent months, researchers from Amsterdam UMC and Radboudumc, together with three hospitals, have investigated the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy in a group of 114 patients.

Change behaviour

Cognitive behavioral therapy assumes that your thoughts, behaviors and feelings are interrelated. You learn to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts and consciously start changing your behavior.

“For example, a therapist helps you to change your sleeping habits or to move more, for example with a walking program,” says Hans Knoop. He is a researcher in medical psychology at the Amsterdam UMC and contributed to the realization of the publication.

After treatment with the therapy, post-covid patients are less tired and can concentrate better. Other physical complaints also decrease, such as shortness of breath and sleeping problems.

Cause of complaints not psychological

But that does not mean that the cause of the complaints in post-covid (also known as lung-covid) is psychological, the researchers emphasize. Or that the therapy helps everyone.

“But it is not a holy breakthrough,” says Alfons Olde Loohuis. He is a medical advisor at C support, a foundation that provides support and advice to people with long-term corona complaints. “The emphasis on biomedical matters in post-covid recovery is much more important.”

Biomedical matters include bacteria, viruses, foreign substances and hereditary properties. Olde Loohuis: “For example, it is very important to do more research into muscle weakness or clots in the body.”

Wat is post-covid?

If the complaints after a corona infection persist for more than three months, it is said to be post-covid. This concerns, for example, chest pain, loss of smell and taste, shortness of breath, fatigue or muscle pain.

A large-scale population study shows that one in eight people who become infected with corona are left post-covid. The research, done by UMC Groningen and Radboudumc, started in March 2020 when the corona pandemic started.

60 percent less tired

Knoop, who also works as a clinical psychologist, says that only people who had had corona and who had remained extremely tired afterwards participated in the study. “A general practitioner or specialist has referred them to us or they have registered themselves for our study.”

The doctor had checked whether there could be other causes of the fatigue. “That way we were sure that the fatigue was actually due to covid,” says Knoop. Subsequently, half of a group of 114 patients received cognitive behavioral therapy for a period of five months. The other half was helped by a general practitioner, physiotherapist or occupational therapist.

After that period, their fatigue was checked again. “It turned out,” says Knoop, “the people who had had behavioral therapy had fewer complaints. About 60 percent of the people in the behavioral therapy group were less tired afterwards.”

Active versus rest

Medical advisor Olde Loohuis thinks that this form of therapy can help, but is more in favor of a technique that focuses on rest, called pacing. It is important to keep activities short and to rest in between. “Pacing means taking rest in blocks,” he says. “If you unload the dishwasher, for example, it is important to include one or two stops. This is already a major activity for many patients.”

Is this the cure for post-covid? No, says Olde Loohuis, but it will come, ‘when more medicines come’. “But whether that will happen in the short term, I doubt.”