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Antidepressant May Help Avoid Serious COVID Illness By Ralph Ellis
Feb. 3, 2021 The anti-depressant Fluvoxamine shows promise in preventing people infected with coronavirus from developing serious symptoms and having to be hospitalized, according to a non-randomized study of California racetrack workers. What we observed was that all the patients who received Fluvoxamine, none of them had a severe COVID infection that affected their lungs or their respiratory status, Caline Mattar, MD, told KNBC in Los Angeles. Mattar is an infectious disease researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who helped conduct the study that was published in
Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Published February 1, 2021 •
Updated on February 2, 2021 at 10:08 am
NBC Universal, Inc.
A commonly prescribed pill approved more than 13 years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for depression and obsessive compulsive disorder is showing initial success in preventing people infected with COVID-19 from developing serious symptoms and being hospitalized.
The drug Fluvoxamine, sold by the brand name Luvox, appears to prevent inflammation in the lungs of people infected with COVID-19, which can be fatal. What we observed was that all the patients who received Fluvoxamine, none of them had a severe COVID infection that affected their lungs or their respiratory status, said Dr. Caline Mattar, an infectious disease researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who helped conduct an initial trial of the drug last fall.