News from Austria and Switzerland

[Yann04]

Hate to see infrastructure being built to support a more psychiatric view.

Although I have to say this doesn’t look like classical BPS/Psychosomatics more like if Biobabble and Psychiatry merged.

The treatment scheme used in the project, called “CoviKET,” begins with phytotherapy, followed by antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, sometimes in combination.

 

[Chandelier]

Long-Covid-Ambulanz geplant - an der Psychiatrie am AKH Wien

Am Wiener AKH ist die Einrichtung einer neuen Long-Covid-Ambulanz geplant. Angesiedelt werden soll diese an der Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie. Behandlungsversuche laufen dort bereits seit Längerem - und zwar nach einem aus der Depressionstherapie entlehnten Schema. Ein...

www.sn.at

Long COVID Outpatient Clinic Planned – at the Department of Psychiatry at Vienna General Hospital (AKH Vienna)

AI Summary:

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Studies where Lucie Bartova is involved:

FATIGEAT (in progress)

ME/CFS versus Depression (FATIGEAT) | MedUni Vienna

psychiatrie-psychotherapie.meduniwien.ac.at

Thread 'Use and Perceived Helpfulness of Different Intervention Strategies in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Depression, 2026,Dorczok+'

Jan 28, 2026

Use and Perceived Helpfulness of Different Intervention Strategies in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Depression

Spoiler: Authors

Dorczok, Marie Celine; Mossaheb, Nilufar; Mittmann, Gloria; Thomas, Marina F; Bartova, Lucie; Schrank, Beate; Steiner-Hofbauer, Verena

BACKGROUND
Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) or depression both frequently report debilitating exhaustion, yet the two conditions differ in their etiological and diagnostic clarity, and clinical management. This study aimed to examine differences in the use and perceived...

• SNT Gatchaman
• depression treatment survey
• Replies: 1
• Forum: ME/CFS research

• 

Review Thread 'Dietary Supplementation for Fatigue Symptoms in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)—A Systematic Review, 2025, Dorczok'

Jan 31, 2025

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/3/475

Open Access
Systematic Review
Dietary Supplementation for Fatigue Symptoms in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)—A Systematic Review
by
Marie Celine Dorczok
1,2,*,
Gloria Mittmann
1,
Nilufar Mossaheb
2,3,
Beate Schrank
4,
Lucie Bartova
3,5,
Matthias Neumann
1,6 and
Verena Steiner-Hofbauer
1


1
Research Centre Transitional Psychiatry, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, 3500 Krems, Austria
2
Division of Social Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of...

• Dolphin

• 

A particularly "charming" find are these presentation titles from the 50. Winterseminar "Biologische Psychiatrie":

https://psychiatrie-psychotherapie.meduniwien.ac.at/fileadmin/content/OE/psychiatrie-psychotherapie/dokumente/dokumente_AP/Oberlech-2025_Programm_09.03.2025.pdf

Long-Covid-Ambulanz kommt doch nicht

Die am Wiener AKH geplante Long‑Covid‑Ambulanz an der Psychiatrie wird nicht bewilligt. Das teilte das Krankenhaus am Montag mit. Zuvor hatte es scharfe Kritik aus Fachkreisen am geplanten Behandlungskonzept gegeben, das Long Covid zu sehr mit Depressionen gleichsetze.

wien.orf.at

Long Covid Outpatient Clinic Will Not Be Established After All

The Long Covid outpatient clinic planned at the psychiatric department of Vienna’s AKH will not be approved, the hospital announced. Previously, there had been strong criticism from experts of the proposed treatment concept, which was seen as equating Long Covid too closely with depression.

AI Translation:

The planned Long Covid outpatient clinic at the psychiatric department of the Vienna General Hospital (AKH) will not be approved, the hospital announced.
The decision followed strong criticism from experts regarding the proposed treatment concept, which was seen as equating Long Covid too closely with depression.

According to a written statement from the hospital’s press office, the hospital’s management did not approve the establishment of a Long Covid clinic at the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy because the treatment and especially the initial assessment of these patients primarily fall within the field of somatic medicine.
Patients with psychological symptoms can continue to be treated at the General Outpatient Clinic of the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.

Until recently, internal planning for the clinic had apparently continued, and interested individuals could register on a telephone list.
ORF had previously reported on treatment attempts by a group led by psychiatrist and specialist in treatment-resistant depression, Lucie Bartova, at the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at AKH Vienna.

The four-stage treatment concept used is based on a scheme applied for treatment-resistant depression.
It includes phytotherapy (herbal medicine), antidepressants, and other psychotropic drugs.
If these measures are ineffective, treatment with ketamine may be considered for a smaller group of patients.

Experts criticized the concept. Psychiatrist Georg Schomerus from the University Hospital Leipzig expressed surprise at the assumed similarity between Long Covid and depression, stating that there are clinically many differences from depressive disorders.
He also warned of a potential negative side effect: both the concept and the placement of a Long Covid clinic within psychiatry could reinforce the impression that Long Covid is a mental illness rather than a post-infectious immunological multisystem disease.
This, he argued, could have indirect consequences for overall medical care and further research efforts.

Further criticism came from German psychologist and psychotherapist Bettina Grande, who specializes in the care of Long Covid patients and in the multisystem disease ME/CFS, which can occur as a long-term consequence of Covid-19 infection.
She argued that Long Covid clinics should be located in immunology and neurology, or possibly in internal medicine, but clearly within somatic (physical) medicine.