This antidepressant may keep COVID-19 patients out of hospital - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Early-stage research published in a major journal this month found the antidepressant fluvoxamine may prevent patients with COVID-19 from needing hospital care.

According to a report in JAMA, no one who took the drug for two weeks soon after being diagnosed with COVID developed serious breathing problems, vs.

Doctors say it’s still too soon to add fluvoxamine to the treatment guidelines for symptomatic, recently diagnosed patients who want to stay out of the hospital.

No doctor or hospital in the state contacted by the Star Tribune for this story said they’re giving fluvoxamine to COVID patients.

Since the start of the pandemic in Minnesota, just over 5% of people with diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the state have been admitted to the hospital for it, and 1.2% required intensive-care beds, often for invasive breathing support.

Preventing patients from needing hospitalization is the primary goal in examining antidepressants like fluvoxamine.

“If found effective in treating COVID-19, the benefits may well outweigh the downsides” of the drug, Marquart said in an e-mail.

But doctors and spokesmen with North Memorial, Mayo Clinic and HealthPartners all said more study is needed before they would use fluvoxamine for treating symptomatic COVID patients outside the hospital.

He believes the initial trial results on fluvoxamine published in JAMA were so positive and clear that waiting several more months for the final trial results will needlessly sacrifice lives.

Out of more than 10,000 submissions related to COVID-19, the journal opted to publish the fluvoxamine paper because the study was designed to minimize bias while keeping all patient interactions remote.

The trial is randomized and double-blind, which means patients are randomly assigned the real drug or a placebo, and neither the researchers nor the patients know who’s getting which one until the end.

Boulware, the U doctor who ran a similar outpatient trial that found the drug hydroxychloroquine did not stop the worsening of COVID-19 after exposure, said he hopes the fluvoxamine trial will quickly lead to definitive answers