Information center / / /

Common antidepressant can cut COVID-19 hospitalization by up to 30 per cent

Mills says having an easily-accessible drug can allow hospitals to avoid expensive and sometimes risky treatments.

(Marlene Yeung/ CTV News) — The inexpensive and well-known drug fluvoxamine can save the lives of COVID-19 patients and cut hospital admissions by up to 30 per cent, according to a new study.

The study, co-led by researchers at McMaster University and published Wednesday in The Lancet, treated 741 randomly selected Brazilian COVID-19 patients with fluvoxamine, and another 756 with a placebo. All of the patients were treated from Jan. 15 to Aug. 6 of 2021, and were monitored for 28 days. All of the patients were unvaccinated. 

Fluvoxamine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant that is used to treat mental health conditions such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders. (…)

READ MORE

Categories