Acupuncture for Post COVID-19 Condition (Long COVID) Neuropsychiatric Symptoms

Inclusion Criteria:

• meet the clinical diagnosis of Long COVID by the World Health Organization (WHO),with no neuropsychiatric symptoms 1 year before infection with Covid-19, andcontinue to have at least one neuropsychiatric symptom for 2 months after SARS-CoV-2turned negative 3 months above;

• aged 12 to 80 years;

• willing and able to consent, and complete all assessment and study procedures

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients with a history of chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms;

• cardiovascular diseases pre-existing to the Covid-19 episode such as arrhythmia,heart failure, myocardial infarction, and patients with cardiac pacemakers;

• documented pre-existing history of psychiatric illness, including substance abuse;

• suicidal tendencies (attempted suicide in the 12 months before the study);

• any chronic or remote neurological disorder (i.e. stroke, head trauma, epilepsy,tumor);

• those who participated in other clinical trials within one month;

• pregnant or lactating female patients;

• have surgery within two months before the study or will have a scheduled surgeryduring the study;

• acute brain injury or acute encephalopathy from another etiology than Covid-19 (e.g., sepsis, liver or renal failure, alcohol or drug withdrawal, drug toxicity);

• open-heart cardiac surgery or cardiac arrest during the last 6 months;

• patients who received acupuncture treatment 1 month before the start of the study;

• patients who were unable to complete the assessment during screening due to severemental, cognitive, or emotional impairment