Not only against depression
An inexpensive antidepressant turned out to be a potentially effective remedy against complications in Covid-19
Maria Azarova, Naked Science
The staff of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who conducted a double-blind randomized controlled trial, found that fluvoxamine (an antidepressant similar to prozac, an agonist of σ1 receptors, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) helps to reduce the risk of severe Covid-19 and hospitalization.
The results are published in the journal JAMA (Lenze et al., Fluvoxamine vs Placebo and Clinical Determination in Patients With Symptomatic COVID-19. A Randomized Clinical Trial).
It was decided to study fluvoxamine, used to treat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, in the context of Covid-19 because it has strong anti-inflammatory properties: doctors suggested that the drug could prevent a cytokine storm – a powerful and sometimes fatal inflammatory reaction of the immune system to coronavirus and other pathogens.
The study involved 152 American adults (average age – 46 years; 109 of them were women) with confirmed polymerase chain reaction coronavirus disease. At the beginning of the experiment, their symptoms were mild and were present for about a week.
The subjects were randomly divided equally into two groups: the first took fluvoxamine for 15 days (50 milligrams in the evening on the first day, then 100 milligrams twice a day, and then the dose was increased to 100 milligrams three times a day), the second was given a placebo.
As the results showed, none of the 76 patients in the first group had a deterioration in their condition (oxygen saturation – 92% or lower along with difficulty breathing or the development of pneumonia) compared with six (8.3 percent) participants in the placebo group. At the same time, four of them were hospitalized for a period of four to 21 days. One patient was on a ventilator for 10 days. Doctors have not recorded any fatal outcomes.
Thus, the authors concluded, fluvoxamine can reduce the risk of deterioration in patients with Covid-19.
"The test results are encouraging. Fluvoxamine should be considered for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 in the early stages of the disease. Even if vaccines or other therapeutic agents are used as the first line of defense, fluvoxamine can dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization. <...> Treatment that can prevent lung problems in people infected with coronavirus is extremely necessary. We look forward to conducting a larger study in the coming weeks to further evaluate the effectiveness of fluvoxamine," the researchers noted.
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