Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for COVID-19

Cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, functional impairment, and disability following COVID-19 negatively impact Veterans' community functioning and quality of life, contribute to significant human suffering, and are costly to VHA. Rehabilitation is a critical priority for Veterans with long COVID. One promising treatment to improve functioning in Veterans with post-COVID-19 cognitive symptoms is Compensatory Cognitive Training (CCT). Previous studies have found that CCT is feasible, acceptable, and efficacious in Veteran populations with multiple sources of cognitive dysfunction. This randomized controlled trial aims to address important RR&D priorities by examining feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a COVID-19-specific rehabilitation intervention, CCT for long COVID (CCT-C) compared to a robust control condition. The proposed study has the potential to improve cognitive function, functional independence, and quality of life for Veterans with late or delayed effects of secondary conditions related to COVID-19 infections.

2-8% of the US population report "long COVID" symptoms - including "brain fog," thinking difficulties, memory problems, and psychiatric symptoms such as sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression. Rates of post-COVID-19 symptoms are nearly double in the Veteran population. These cognitive symptoms contribute to functional impairments, reduced quality of life, poorer self-reported health status, psychological distress, delayed return to work, new onset disability, reduced community integration, and increased healthcare utilization. One promising treatment to improve both everyday functioning and cognition secondary to post-COVID-19 symptoms is Compensatory Cognitive Training (CCT). Previous studies have found that CCT is feasible, acceptable, and efficacious in Veteran populations with multiple sources of cognitive dysfunction. The proposed CDA provides a golden opportunity to evaluate CCT for Veterans with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms (CCT-C), compared with a robust control condition, Holistic Cognitive Education (HCE). The project closely aligns with current RR&D priorities, by "examining COVID-19-specific rehabilitation interventions and responses to treatment" and by addressing "late or delayed effects of secondary conditions related to COVID-19 infections on impairment and disability." Specific aims are 1) to conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial of remote CCT-C with 70 Veterans (35 CCT-C, 35 HCE) with post-COVID-19 cognitive symptoms to examine feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy; 2) to examine the preliminary efficacy of CCT-C in this population on overall functioning, as measured by the World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0), performance-based measures of functional capacity, and secondary outcomes (cognitive performance, quality of life, self-reported cognitive problems, psychiatric symptoms, sleep disturbance, and engagement in work/community activities); and 3) to explore moderators of outcome (e.g., age, initial COVID-19 severity, baseline cognitive functioning, presence of PTSD/mTBI history; biomarkers related to COVID-19 infection).