Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun 1:330:300-308.
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.024. Epub 2023 Mar 17.

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of brief tele-psychotherapy for COVID-19 patients and their first-degree relatives

Bruno Biagianti  1 , Ilaria Lisi  2 , Asia Di Liberto  3 , Nunzio Turtulici  3 , Giuseppe Foti  1 , Silvana Zito  3 , Valeria Ginex  3 , Chiara Fornoni  3 , Francesca Gallo  3 , Filippo Cantù  1 , Valentina Tombola  3 , Viviana Di Fede  3 , Maria Gloria Rossetti  3 , Elisa Colombo  3 , Nino Stocchetti  4 , Elisa R Zanier  2 , Marcella Bellani  5 , Cinzia Bressi  6 , Paolo Brambilla  7
Affiliations
Review

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of brief tele-psychotherapy for COVID-19 patients and their first-degree relatives

Bruno Biagianti et al. J Affect Disord. .

Abstract

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic compromised the mental health of COVID-19 patients and their family members. Due to social distancing and lockdown measures, a remote, tele-psychotherapy program for former or current COVID-19 patients and their relatives was implemented.

Objective: The primary goal of this project was to evaluate intervention feasibility. The secondary aim was to assess the impact of the intervention by means of pre-post psychological changes.

Methods: After a phone-based eligibility screening and remote neuropsychological testing, participants completed online self-reports assessing baseline COVID-related psychopathology. Next, participants attended eight tele-psychotherapy sessions. After treatment, the online self-reports were completed again.

Results: Of 104 enrolled participants, 88 completed the intervention (84.6 % completion rate). Significant pre-post improvements were observed for generalized anxiety (d = 0.38), depression (d = 0.37), insomnia (d = 0.43), post-traumatic psychopathology (d = 0.54), and general malaise (d = 0.31). Baseline cluster analysis revealed a subgroup of 41 subjects (47.6 %) with no psychopathology, and a second subgroup of 45 subject (52.3 %) with moderate severity. Thirty-three percent of the second group reached full symptom remission, while 66 % remained symptomatic after treatment.

Conclusions: Remote brief tele-psychotherapy for COVID-19 patients and their first-degree relatives is feasible and preliminary efficacious at reducing COVID-related psychopathology in a subgroup of patients. Further research is needed to investigate distinct profiles of treatment response.

Keywords: COVID-19; Telemedicine; Telepsychiatry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest All authors report no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow diagram for the enrolment of COVID-19 patients and their relatives.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Preliminary efficacy of tele-psychotherapy, as indexed by significant reductions on self-report questionnaires of COVID-related psychopathology. GAD-7: General Anxiety Disorder-7, PHQ-9: Patient Health Questionnaire-9, ISI: Insomnia Severity Index, IES-R: Impact of Event Scale-Revised, GHQ-12: General Health Questionnaire-12. ***p ≤ 0.001.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Clusters identified using baseline (left) and post-intervention (right) self-report questionnaires' scores.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Confusion matrix of baseline and post-intervention clusters.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Adams-Prassl A., Boneva T., Golin M., Rauh C. The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States. Econ. Policy. 2022;37(109):139–155. doi: 10.1093/epolic/eiac002. - DOI
    1. Al-Hazmi A. Challenges presented by MERS corona virus, and SARS corona virus to global health. Saudi J. Biol. Sci. 2016;23(4):507–511. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2016.02.019. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balcom E.F., Nath A., Power C. Acute and chronic neurological disorders in COVID-19: potential mechanisms of disease. Brain. 2021;144(12):3576–3588. doi: 10.1093/brain/awab302. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bastien C. Validation of the insomnia severity index as an outcome measure for insomnia research. Sleep Med. 2001;2(4):297–307. doi: 10.1016/S1389-9457(00)00065-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Békés V., Doorn K.A., Bőthe B. Assessing patients’ attitudes towards telepsychotherapy: the development of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-patient version. Clin. Psychol. Psychother. 2022;29(6):1918–1927. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2760. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types