SALT LAKE CITY – A drug used as an antidepressant has now helped patients with COVID-19 recover from the virus, small studies have revealed.
Researchers at the University of Utah Health believe the drug is working and are now investigating a larger study to confirm the remarkable results of two previous studies.
The generic drug, fluvoxamine, was developed 40 years ago as an antidepressant, primarily to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder. It’s safe, costs only $ 0.60 per pill and looks great.
“We need a drug that keeps people from getting COVID, and that’s what we hope fluvoxamine will do,” said Dr. Adam Spivak, an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah Health.
For a year since the pandemic began, researchers have been trying to find the pill. Spivak said fluvoxamine could be that treatment.
“It’s a huge gap in our arsenal,” he said. “We have spent a lot of time thinking about vaccines these days. We would like to prevent the disease. But people continue to receive COVID and will continue until we get enough people. ”
After a year of learning about the virus, researchers now believe that the human response to the virus, rather than the virus itself, is what makes people sick.
“There is this huge inflammatory response that makes people sick and lands them in the hospital,” Spivak said.
Could a 40-year-old antidepressant be a possible treatment for COVID-19?
The researchers found that the drug fluvoxamine appears to prevent some of the complications of the disease and make hospitalization and the need for extra oxygen less likely. https://t.co/fHhASCk7wd
– University of Washington in St. Louis (@WUSTL) March 19, 2021
They believe that fluvoxamine targets this inflammatory response because it has anti-inflammatory properties. That’s why psychiatrists at the University of Washington in St. Louis decided to test fluvoxamine on patients with COVID-19.
In one trial, they gave fluvoxamine to 150 people with confirmed COVID-19. Of those who received a placebo, 8% went to the hospital.
Spivak said: “Eighty people received fluvoxamine and zero of those people became ill. They all recovered.”
At approximately 10 days, people taking fluvoxamine recovered largely.
–Dr. Adam Spivak, Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases Division, University of Utah Health
There were similar results in November in a real-world trial after a COVID-19 outbreak at a California racetrack.
“In about 10 days, people taking fluvoxamine recovered largely,” Spivak said.
Researchers at the University of Utah are part of a larger, multi-site study called Stop COVID 2, with the goal of enrolling 1,100 people. You must be at least 30 years old and confirm COVID-19 with symptoms that have started in the last six days.
“We hope to do this as soon as possible so that we can confirm that fluvoxamine is working and we have it in our arsenal, or know that it is not working,” Spivak said.
The researchers performed the entire process remotely, delivering drugs and supplies to participants. It doesn’t matter where you live to participate.
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Jed Boal