Fluvoxamine
We have an intervention here that potentially provides a very large treatment effect at a very low cost - Edward Mills
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How a cheap antidepressant emerged as a promising Covid-19 treatment
Since Covid-19 patients started showing up at clinics and hospitals a year and a half ago, doctors and researchers have been hard at work trying to figure out how to treat them. Most drugs and treatments haven’t panned out, producing either no results or small ones in large-scale clinical trials. Many of the few that work are expensive and difficult to administer.
Hydroxychloroquine, enthusiastically endorsed by President Trump last year, has been shown to have no measurable benefits. New drugs like monoclonal antibodies — proteins meant to imitate the immune system’s response to the disease — have been approved by regulators but must be administered by a doctor through an IV or series…
Resources
Can an inexpensive anti-depressant treat COVID-19? Researchers are cautiously optimistic
The SSRI drug's anti-inflammatory properties could slow the progression of severe COVID-19, experts say
Finding a possible early treatment for COVID-19 in a 40-year-old antidepressant
Sharyn Alfonsi reports on the unusual path fluvoxamine, a drug commonly used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, has had to becoming an early treatment candidate for COVID-19.
Can Antidepressant Medication Fluvoxamine Prevent Severe Covid-19 From Coronavirus?
What might an anti-depressant medication have to do with the Covid-19 coronavirus? Well, it’s all about the sigma-1 receptor. The sigma-1 receptor may sound like a fraternity or sorority get together, but it isn’t. These receptors are in the cells of your body. Activating these receptors may help reduce cytokine production,
Fluvoxamine data for COVID-19 Treatment
Early research suggests that fluvoxamine, an FDA approved medication for depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, can be an effective early treatment for COVID-19. Fluvoxamine, created 37 years ago, is an inexpensive and widely available generic drug. It's in a class of drugs called Selective Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).
How a Medication for OCD Ended Up in a Covid-19 Trial
In a small study, the drug kept patients with mild symptoms from worsening. If it holds up in a larger test, it could help keep more people out of hospitals.
Psychiatric Drugs Could Be the Key to Treating Covid-19
Antidepressants and antipsychotics could offer protection against the coronavirus, but not because of their effect on the brain
SSRI Antidepressants May Be Effective Early Treatments for COVID-19
They chose to investigate fluvoxamine because it has strong anti-inflammatory activity. The research team, led by Eric Lenze, director of the Healthy Mind Lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, thought the anti-inflammatory properties might prevent cytokine storms, the massive overactive immune response seen in severe cases of COVID-19.
These Drugs Might Prevent Severe COVID
Even with vaccines on the way, treatments are needed to prevent the disease from getting worse—and to be ready for COVID-25, COVID-37, and so on.
With fluvoxamine, doctors find an old drug that may actually work against COVID-19
The results on fluvoxamine were strikingly different. “This is the first drug we’ve tried out that found a significant effect,” Edward J. Mills, who oversees the Together Trial out of McMaster University in Canada, told me. The fluvoxamine patients experienced about a 30% reduction in risk — defined as longer than six hours’ observation in an emergency department or hospitalization — compared with the placebo group.
How a cheap antidepressant emerged as a promising Covid-19 treatment
Most Covid-19 drug treatments that have been included in trials haven’t panned out. A large new study suggests fluvoxamine might be different.
Fluvoxamine
Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant which functions pharmacologically as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Though it is in the same class as other SSRI drugs, it is most often used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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