Abstract:
Three years into this historic pandemic, the scientific and healthcare communities continue to learn agreat deal regarding COVID-19, the disease that is produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The most urgent and immediate focus has been on vaccine development for diseaseprevention/mitigation and on identification of effective therapeutic interventions for acute phase of illness. However, attention is increasingly being placed on formulating treatment strategies for individuals who arepost-COVID-19 and experiencing a syndrome of persistent cognitive, somatic and behavioral symptoms that is being referred to as long COVID.
In addition to identifying novel compounds that may improve outcome ineither acute or residual COVID-19, an alternate and parallel strategy is to repurpose or reposition drugs which have been approved for other conditions and subsequently assess their safety and efficacy when applied toCOVID-19. In this light, antidepressant medications, particularly serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have garnered attention amidst evidence supporting their anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties. Results from several preliminary studies suggest that early administration of antidepressants may prevent clinical deterioration and even death in patients with acute COVID-19.
In this article, we present purported anti-inflammatory mechanisms of the antidepressants, review results from studies that have appeared in the literature to date regarding antidepressants and acute COVID-19, and discuss the possible utility of antidepressants as a potential therapeutic resource for long COVID.
Source: Rivas-Vázquez R, Carrazana EJ, Blais MA, Rey GJ, Rivas-Vázquez E. Long Covid & Antidepressants. Med Discoveries. 2023; 2(3): 1023. https://meddiscoveries.org/pdf/1023.pdf (Full text)