Project 466821

Long COVID encompasses a range of physical symptoms that persist following recovery from COVID-19 infection. Beyond the physical consequences, there are concerns regarding the persisting psychological effects of Long COVID. Preliminary research suggests that Long COVID is associated with increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. While our knowledge of the physical and psychological consequences of Long COVID is growing, limited research has examined interventions for psychological symptoms in Long COVID patients. Research has demonstrated that self-compassion training interventions effectively target symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The proposed study will investigate the effectiveness of a self-compassion training intervention to reduce psychological symptom severity in individuals with Long COVID. Participants will be screened for Long COVID and assigned to an online self-compassion training intervention or a no-intervention control group. Participants in both groups will complete online measures of self-compassion, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression at pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up periods. It is hypothesized that individuals assigned to the intervention condition will report increased levels of self-compassion and decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder post-intervention and at the three-month follow-up compared to the control condition. Identifying an intervention that targets psychological symptoms in Long COVID patients could have significant implications in alleviating the burden placed on our health care system due to Long COVID-related mental health issues.