A recent study suggests that the widely available antidepressant fluvoxamine may help COVID-19 patients avoid serious medical conditions requiring hospitalisation.
In Brazil, about 1,500 unvaccinated outpatients participated in the trial. All of the patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection and were assessed to be at high risk of developing a severe case of sickness.
Fluvoxamine was given to 741 patients, while the remaining 756 were given a placebo.
Over the course of 28 days, the fluvoxamine group had a 32% reduced rate of hospitalization than the placebo group. One patient in the fluvoxamine group died, compared to 12 in the placebo group. The report was published online in The Lancet Global Health on October 27.
The fluvoxamine experiment was part of the wider TOGETHER trial, which began in May 2020 to assess potential COVID-19 out-of-hospital treatments. Fluvoxamine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medicine that has been used to treat a variety of illnesses, including depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, since the 1990s.
Fluvoxamine was chosen for its anti-inflammatory properties. When COVID-19 infects a patient, his or her immune system might unleash severe pro-inflammatory “cytokine storms.”
“Fluvoxamine may reduce the production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines, that can be triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said the study co-author Dr. Angela Reiersen.
According to Edward Mills, the TOGETHER trial’s co-principal investigator:
“Fluvoxamine is, so far, the only treatment that if administered early, can prevent COVID-19 from becoming a life-threatening illness. It could be one of our most powerful weapons against the virus and its effectiveness is one of the most important discoveries we have made since the pandemic began.”
“In addition, this cheap, easily accessible pill is a massive boon to public health, both in Canada and internationally, allowing hospitals to avoid expensive and sometimes risky treatments,” he added in a university news release.
Fluvoxamine is only $4 for a 10-day course, so it might be a game changer for poorer nations with low vaccination rates and a dearth of more modern COVID-19 treatments, according to Mills.
Dr. Eric Ascher is a family medicine physician at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital. He wasn’t a part of the current study, but he termed the results “promising.”
“The medication potentially decreases the cytokine storm, the process the body undergoes when you suffer from COVID-19, which can cause organ failure,” Dr. Ascher said.
“This is a widely available and accessible medication, and has a low cost associated with its use.”
Dr. Theodore Strange, chair of medicine at New York City’s Staten Island University Hospital, agreed.
“This is an excellent study about an inexpensive, well-tolerated medication, which may have potential to help patients with COVID,” Dr. Strange said.
“The Lancet is an excellent peer-reviewed journal and therefore the TOGETHER trial needs to be further looked into and continued trials here in the USA should be conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this treatment.”
Meanwhile, the study’s authors have submitted their findings to the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health in the United States.
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