Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors may reduce severity of COVID-19

Covid -19 Pandemic has caused lot of mental health instability, fear of the disease and lockdown caused depression in most of the patients. Use of antidepressants have increased in the pandemic. Antidepressant use is known to reduce levels of several proinflammatory cytokines suggested to be involved with the development of severe COVID-19.

A retrospective cohort study by Dr Tomiko Oskotsky, MD and team has revealed that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) might be associated with reduced severity of COVID-19 reflected in the reduced risk of mortality. However, further research and randomized clinical trials are needed to elucidate the effect of Covid-19 outcomes specifically that of fluoxetine and fluvoxamine.

The findings of the study are published in JAMA Network Open.

The objective of the study was to investigate the association of SSRIs with outcomes in patients with COVID-19 by analyzing electronic health records (EHRs).

The study was retrospective cohort study used propensity score matching by demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and medication indication to compare SSRI-treated patients with matched control patients not treated with SSRIs within a large EHR database representing a diverse population of 83 584 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from January to September 2020 and with a duration of follow-up of as long as 8 months in 87 health care centers across the US. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were fluoxetine, fluoxetine or fluvoxamine, and other SSRIs (ie, not fluoxetine or fluvoxamine). The main outcome was death.