WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For adult outpatients with COVID-19, fluvoxamine is associated with a reduction in clinical deterioration, according to a study published online Nov. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Eric J. Lenze, M.D., from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues randomly assigned community-living nonhospitalized adults with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection who had COVID-19 symptom onset within seven days and oxygen saturation of 92 percent or greater to receive either 100 mg fluvoxamine or placebo (80 and 72 patients, respectively) three times a day for 15 days. A total of 115 patients completed the trial. The primary outcome was clinical deterioration within 15 days of randomization.
The researchers found that clinical deterioration occurred in zero and six patients in the fluvoxamine and placebo groups, respectively (absolute difference, 8.7 percent from the survival analysis). One serious and 11 other adverse events occurred in the fluvoxamine group, while in the placebo group, there were six serious and 12 other adverse events.
“Most investigational treatments for COVID-19 have been aimed at the very sickest patients, but it’s also important to find therapies that prevent patients from getting sick enough to require supplemental oxygen or to have to go to the hospital,” Lenze said in a statement. “Our study suggests fluvoxamine may help fill that niche.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
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