Studies have found that fluvoxamine has a significant effect on the treatment of early covid-19

According to the Associated Press in New York on October 27, researchers have found that an inexpensive antidepressant reduces the need for hospitalization of adults infected with new crown pneumonia after conducting research on whether existing drugs can play a role in treating new crown pneumonia.

The researchers tested the drug, which is used to treat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, because it has lowered inflammation and has shown good promise in some small-scale studies.

They shared the findings with the National Institutes of Health, which is responsible for issuing guidelines for COVID-19 treatment, and hope to get recommendations from the World Health Organization.

Edward Mills, one of the study's authors, McMaster University in Canada, said: "If there is a WHO recommendation, we will see the drug widely used. He said many poor countries currently have the drug readily available.

If the pill, called fluvoxamine, is used to treat COVID-19, a course of treatment costs $4. By comparison, antibody treatment costs about $2,000, and Merck's experimental antiviral drugs for COVID-19 cost about $700 per course. Some experts predict that a combination of therapies will eventually be used to fight the coronavirus.

Researchers recently tested the antidepressant on nearly 1,500 Brazilians who had recently contracted the coronavirus and were at risk of severe illness because of other health problems, such as diabetes. About half of the subjects took antidepressants at home for 10 days, and the rest took a placebo. The researchers followed these people for 4 weeks to determine which people were hospitalized or stayed in the emergency room for long periods of time when the hospital was full.

Of the subjects who took the drug, 11 percent needed to be hospitalized or stayed in the emergency room for an extended period of time, compared with 16 percent of those who took a placebo.

The findings, published Wednesday in the British journal The Lancet Global Health, were so clear that the independent expert overseeing the study recommended an early termination of the study.

Source: Reference News Network