Antidepressant may prevent severe COVID-19: study - China.org.cn

In the largest study yet to evaluate a common, low-cost antidepressant as a treatment for COVID-19, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and from Canada and Brazil have found that the drug fluvoxamine prevents some of the most serious complications of COVID-19, sharply reducing the risk of hospitalization and death.

The trial, conducted in Brazil, confirms results from the first trial of fluvoxamine for COVID-19, which was launched in early 2020 at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The Brazilian study followed about 1,500 patients newly diagnosed with COVID-19. Of them, 741 people received the drug, a 100 mg tablet of fluvoxamine twice a day for 10 days, while 756 received a placebo twice daily.

Of those taking fluvoxamine, 11 percent became sick enough to require an extended stay at a COVID-19 emergency facility or be admitted to a hospital, compared with 16 percent of people who received a placebo.

In a secondary analysis of participants who took at least 80 percent of their pills, the findings were even more striking: Risk of hospitalization or extended emergency care was reduced by two-thirds, and there was one death among those taking fluoxamine compared with 12 deaths in the placebo group, a reduction in mortality risk of 91 percent.