A new study has found that a super cheap antidepressant decreased the need for hospitalization among high risk adults with COVID.
Researchers tested the depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder medication, which is not an antiviral agent, because it was known to relieve inflammation and showed promise in smaller studies. The results were shared with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which publishes treatment guidelines and is looking forward to a recommendation from the World Health Organization.
"If WHO recommends this, you will see it widely taken up," study co-author Dr. Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario remarked, as per CBN News. He added that many poor nations already have the drug available, saying, "We hope it will lead to a lot of lives saved."
The super cheap antidepressant in question is called fluvoxamine, which costs about $4 for a course of COVID treatment. Today, antibody IV treatments used to combat COVID costs about $2,000 per course. Merck's upcoming experimental antiviral pill for COVID has a $700 price tag per course. Some health experts believe various treatments will eventually be mixed and matched to combat COVID.
Researchers conducted a trial of fluvoxamine among 1,500 patients who were at risk of severe COVID in Brazil due to other health problems like diabetes. About half of the test subjects took the super cheap antidepressant at home over the span of 10 days, while the rest took a placebo. For four weeks, they were tracked to find out if anyone had to be hospitalized or had to spend time in an emergency room when hospitals were full.
Results showed that among those who were given the super cheap antidepressant for COVID, only 11% required hospitalization or an extended stay in the emergency room, compared to 15% who were given the placebo. Results were published on Wednesday in the journal Lancet Global Health.
According to the Washington Post, the clinical trial was conducted from January to August across 11 sites in Brazil. The average age of participants in the study was 50, with 60% of them being women.
"Fluvoxamine may reduce the production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines, that can be triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection," Dr. Angela Reiersen, an associate professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis who worked on the study, told CNN. The super cheap antidepressant also showed to reduce blood platelets, which can affect the clotting effects of COVID.
Fluvoxamine is currently produced by several manufacturers, more commonly under the commercial name Luvox, and is generally prescribed to "reduce repetitive, unwanted thoughts and ritualized behaviors" and prescribed off-label for "major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and other conditions."
"Given fluvoxamine's safety, tolerability, ease of use, low cost, and widespread availability, these findings might influence national and international guidelines on the clinical management of COVID-19," researchers concluded. They noted however that it was not a "perfect" study and that it had been conducted in Brazil, where patients had a higher rate of hospitalization versus in other clinical trials.
