Antidepressant drugs to treat covid

Read all articles about coronavirus (COVID-19) here.

Antidepressants are likely to help COVID-19 patients avoid some of the most serious complications of this infection. This drug, called fluvoxamine, was tested as a treatment for patients with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection in the United States. The report from the study also said that this drug can reduce the risk of being hospitalized and the need for breathing devices.

Anti-depressant drugs can prevent COVID-19 patients from worsening their symptoms

Trials on the fluvoxamine antidepressant for the treatment of COVID-19 were carried out by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine which is a collaboration of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Infectious Diseases.

In this study, the researchers conducted trials on 152 COVID-19 patients who at that time experienced only mild symptoms.

They divided the test participants into two groups, namely 80 patients in the group that received antidepressant drugs and 72 patients in the group who received a placebo (a drug designed without any effect).

After 15 days of patients receiving this drug therapy, none of the patients receiving anti-depressants had serious worsening of their symptoms. Meanwhile, 6 patients from the placebo group (8.3%) experienced worsening of their symptoms. The worsening of symptoms experienced by these six patients included shortness of breath, pneumonia, and reduced levels of oxygen in the blood.

"Patients on fluvoxamine did not have trouble breathing or required hospitalization," said Professor of Psychiatry Eric J. Lenze, one of the researchers on the study.

"Most of the COVID-19 drug research is aimed at patients with severe symptoms. We feel it is also important to find therapies that can prevent patients from getting sick, needing additional oxygen, or having to be in the hospital. "Our study shows fluvoxamine can help fill that void," said Lenze.

The study, published in the journal JAMA on Saturday (12/11), emphasizes that determining the efficacy of antidepressants as a COVID-19 drug needs a larger scale randomized trial.

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How can anti-depressant drugs deal with viral inflammation?

The results of this study are unusual because the fluvoxamine-type anti-depressant is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) inhibitor drug. Fluvoxamine is generally the first choice for treating depression.

This medication is also commonly used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), not viral infections. So how do these antidepressants work in respiratory disease caused by COVID-19?

Fluvoxamine works by inhibiting a protein that functions to absorb the serotonin hormone in brain cells, this protein is called a serotonin transporter. When these serotonin transporters are blocked or inhibited, the serotonin levels in the brain increase.

This is the main anti-depressant mechanism, because the brains of depressed people have low serotonin levels.

Treatment with this drug over several weeks has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression in about half of patients. These medications are very safe, with the most common side effects being sexual dysfunction, constipation, headaches, and fatigue.

Unlike other SSRI drugs, apart from blocking a protein called serotonin transporter, this fluvoxamine SSRI can also actively interact with other brain cell proteins called sigma-1 receptor. This interaction is what makes fluvoxamine antidepressant drugs able to handle COVID-19 patients.

Fluvoxamine strongly activates protein sigma-1 receptor, consequently it is able to inhibit the production of cytokines. Inhibition of cytokine production can prevent cytokine storms. What is a cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients can be read here.

In short, cytokines are signaling molecules that direct the action of immune cells in action against viruses. But the body can produce cytokines in excess, this is a condition called a cytokine storm. Instead of fighting infection, this condition actually causes inflammation or inflammation that can be fatal.

So fluvoxamine can activate protein sigma-1 receptor. L This protein pestle inhibits the production of cytokines, which can then help control the body's inflammatory or inflammatory response.