Foreign media: Affordable antidepressants fluvoxamine can effectively reduce the risk of severe covid-19

The Paper's reporter Nan Boyi

Recently, researchers have discovered an affordable antidepressant that reduces the need for hospitalizations in adult high-risk COVID-19 patients.

In a study of existing drugs looking for a cure for the new coronavirus, researchers found an affordable drug for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder that reduced the need for hospitalization in adult high-risk patients with COVID-19, according to npr news on October 28. They have shared their results with the National Institutes of Health, which has issued treatment guidelines, and hope to get recommendations from the World Health Organization.

The report said. Researchers tested the antidepressant fluvoxamine on nearly 1,500 Brazilians infected with the new coronavirus. These people are at risk of severe illness due to other health problems, such as diabetes. About half of the population took fluvoxamine at home for 10 days, and the rest took drugs with no therapeutic effect. The study documented the patients' health over a four-week period and whether they required hospitalization and the length of time they spent in the emergency room.

The findings showed that 11 percent of people in the test group taking fluvoxamine required hospitalization or extended stay in the emergency room, compared with 16 percent in the control group taking ineffective drugs.

According to the report, the cost of a course of treatment for COVID-19 with fluvoxamine is 4 US dollars (about 25.56 yuan). "If approved by WHO, the drug will be widely accepted." Study co-author Dr Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said, "Many poor countries already have the drug, and we hope it saves more lives." ”

Editor-in-Charge: Su Yangfan