The treatment of Covid-19 patients at high risk with thefluvoxamine antidepressant (costing about $ 4) can reduce the risk of prolonged hospitalization by up to a third, according to a large-scale study. The authors said the research could help strengthen low-cost protection against serious illness or death in countries that have yet to receive adequate vaccine doses.
Fluvoxamine is traditionally used to treat mental health conditions such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders and was selected for experimentation due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
“Identifying inexpensive, widely available and effective therapies against Covid-19 is therefore of great importance, and it is of particular interest to reuse existing drugs that are widely available and have well-understood safety profiles.”
Although reducing deaths was not an anticipated area of concern, the study also found that 12 patients in the placebo group ended up dying, while only one in the fluvoxamine group succumbed to the virus. The authors stressed that further evaluation is needed as fluvoxamine is not on the World Health Organization list of essential drugs and can be addictive.
“Given the safety, tolerability, ease of use, low cost and widespread availability of fluvoxamine, these findings may have an important influence on national and international guidelines on the clinical management of Covid-19,” said Gilmar. Reis, co-head of the firm, based in Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
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