Clinical Research Directory

Improving Post COVID-19 Syndrome With Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments

Over 500 million people have been infected with COVID-19, and to date, more than 6 million people have died. Many individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 continue to experience symptoms even after they have been "cured" of the disease. This condition is known as post COVID-19 condition, which can have serious health consequences. A common symptom among these individuals is chronic fatigue, characterized by persistent tiredness or lack of energy. This study aims to explore a novel treatment for symptoms of post COVID-19 condition, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This approach has shown promise in helping people with post COVID-19 conditions and treating some other causes of fatigue. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves placing patients in a small chamber where they receive high oxygen gas levels. However, this treatment is expensive and time-consuming, and it is unclear if this treatment can be effectively assessed in a large-scale research study. This small study will help us decide if conducting a large research study is feasible. The investigators aim to assess if hyperbaric oxygen therapy can improve symptoms of post COVID-19 condition, such as fatigue.

Psychosomatic, Physical Activity or Both for 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.

Balance Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Long COVID

This randomised controlled trial aims to investigate the efficacy of a psychological intervention for long COVID (LC) / post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) called Balance Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Balance ACT). The primary objective of this trial is to investigate whether Balance-ACT improves quality of life over treatment as usual (i.e., self-help leaflet) in people with PCS/LC.

Transcranial Pulse Stimulation (TPS) in Post-COVID-19

The objective of the present study is to demonstrate treatment efficacy of transcranial pulse stimulation for patients with Post-COVID-19 related neurological symptoms (fatigue, cognitive deficits, mood deterioration). Fatigue, as measured by the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS), will represent the primary outcome variable. The verum treatment will be compared to a sham (placebo) condition.

Effects of Rehabilitation Combined With a Maintenance Program Compared to Rehabilitation Alone in Post-COVID-19

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus leads to persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks in 15% of cases ("post-COVID syndrome"). Symptoms like fatigue, dyspnoea, limitations in physical performance and activities, head ache, anxiety symptoms, and depression are heterogenous which limit physical health and participation in daily life activities. In the last years, multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs showed benefits in quality of life and symptom intensity in patients with post-COVID. Therefore, rehabilitation programs are recommended for individuals with Post-COVID by official sites like the German Society of Pulmonology and the European Respiratory Society. Own first data (published at the ERS conference 2023) revealed that one the one hand, inpatient rehabilitation is effective, however, on the other hand, it is challenging to maintain these effects after completing the program. Therefore, the aim of this study is to sustain these benefits by using a digital maintenance program following the rehabilitation program compared to usual care.

Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial

Long COVID is a complex condition that affects approximately 1.4 million Canadians following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fatigue is the most common symptom of Long COVID. This feasibility trial will evaluate a new rehabilitation program called COVIDEx for treating fatigue after COVID-19, and compare its effectiveness to the standard treatment currently used. The experimental treatment group will receive an 8-week multi-modal rehabilitation program with two 50-minute sessions per week. 60 participants will be recruited, randomly assigned to the COVIDEx program or standard of care (SoC) and followed for 24 weeks.

Yoga Versus Health Education for the Treatment of Persistent Fatigue in Patients With Post COVID-19 Syndrome

Evaluation of the short- and medium-term effect of a yoga intervention in addition to routine care compared to health education in addition to routine care on fatigue in patients with post covid syndrome.

Retinal Neurovascular Coupling in Patients Previously Infected With COVID-19

The Study objective is to measure retinal neurovascular coupling and blood flow parameters in patients previously infected with COVID-19, long COVID-19 and healthy age- and sex- matched control subjects

Effects of a Home-Based Exercise Intervention in Subjects with Long COVID

The current Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the most severe health crisis of the 21st century. This is not only due to the deaths caused by the disease. People that were affected by COVID-19 and supposedly recovered may suffer from long lasting sequelae. The presence of symptoms longer than 3 months after the infection with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is referred to as Post-COVID-19 Syndrome or Long COVID-19. It is estimated that 10-20 percent of all infected people are affected. The most common symptoms include persistent fatigue, reduced physical capacity, dyspnoea, ageusia, anosmia, musculoskeletal pain and neuropsychological complaints such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and a loss of concentration. Considering the novelty of the pathology, evidence on the successful treatment of Post-COVID/Long-COVID is scarce. Physical activity has been established as a treatment option for chronic diseases that have similar symptomatic manifestations to those of Post-COVID/Long-COVID. For example, exercise therapy has shown positive effects on the health status of patients with lung disease, depression, anxiety, insomnia and cognitive impairment. However, there has been controversy whether so-called Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) is a safe treatment strategy for patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This population may experience Post Exertional Malaise (PEM), a worsening of symptoms after physical, cognitive or emotional exertion. Since COVID-19 might be an infectious trigger for CFS, particular caution has to be taken when recruiting participants and when screening them for adverse events and worsening of symptoms during an exercise intervention. It can be hypothesized that patients suffering from Post-COVID/Long-COVID can benefit from exercise in various ways, guaranteed that there is sufficient screening for PEM before and during the intervention and training volume and intensity are increased slowly and progressively. The current study investigates the effects of a home-based concurrent training program on various parameters in people affected by Long COVID.

Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) for Improved Recovery After Exertion.

Widespread infection with SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in millions of people having Post-COVID. Post-COVID is a complex, non-monolithic disease with diverse clinical manifestations. Symptoms range from fatigue, brain fog, muscle aches and shortness of breath, affecting multiple organ systems simultaneously. To directly address this multi-organ component of Post-COVID, innovative treatment methods are urgently needed. One potential treatment that we will investigate in our study, is the intervention via the vagus nerve, as the cranial nerve plays a central role in communication between the body and the brain and influences targeted behavior. This innovative approach is based on our clinically relevant findings regarding the effects where acute tVNS increased the level of effort (Neuser et al., 2020; Ferstl et al., 2021), specifically targeting a key symptom of Post-COVID. In the proposed study, the investigators aim to investigate the effectiveness of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) as a non-invasive, self-administered treatment for Post-COVID symptoms at home. To evaluate the clinically relevant effects of repeated taVNS application (high-intensity stimulation), the investigators will employ a randomized cross-over design to investigate stimulation-induced changes in fatigue, depression and motivation to work for reward compared to low-intensity stimulation and to a control group.

Cohort Follow-up of Epidemic and Neuroimaging for Patients During the 1st Wave of the COVID-19 in China

Our main objective is to analyze the development of physical impact, mental health and blood profile over follow-up time during the 1st wave of the COVID-19. Besides, we aim to establish a database of post-COVID-19 based on simultaneous cortico-spinal magnetic resonance imaging data to identify high-risk patients with long COVID and prevent the neurological symptoms evolution, optimize the tactics of management in China.