{"id":64489,"date":"2021-02-19T03:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=64489"},"modified":"2021-02-22T09:36:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T13:36:24","slug":"common-antidepressant-may-reduce-deadly-covid-19-complications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/02_19_2021\/common-antidepressant-may-reduce-deadly-covid-19-complications","title":{"rendered":"Common Antidepressant May Reduce Deadly COVID-19 Complications"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mental health professionals are grappling with a wave of pandemic-related anxiety and depression, a physician-researcher at The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences is studying whether a commonly prescribed antidepressant might actually fight the effects of the coronavirus itself.<\/p>\n

Better known by consumers under the brand name Prozac, fluoxetine is one of the most frequently prescribed medications in America. Primarily, it\u2019s used to treat panic attacks, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Cheryl McCullumsmith, professor and chair of the UToledo Department of Psychiatry, is leading a clinical trial through UTMC with the goal of determining whether fluoxetine can reduce serious COVID-19 outcomes such as hospitalization, intubation and death.<\/p><\/div>\n

But as the pandemic established a foothold in the United States, Dr. Cheryl McCullumsmith, professor and chair of the UToledo Department of Psychiatry, recalled something else about fluoxetine \u2014 a significant amount of research has shown it to have impressive anti-inflammatory properties.<\/p>\n

Even more intriguing was that fluoxetine has been shown to block expression of a cell-signaling protein called Interleukin-6.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterleukin-6 is kind of the signal that the body thinks it has to go all in to fight the infection, and the body\u2019s all-in immune response is called a cytokine storm,\u201d McCullumsmith said. \u201cThe body realizes it could die in the process, but it feels it\u2019s at such risk from this virus that if it doesn\u2019t do that it\u2019s going to die anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

That runaway immune response, which can quickly lead to multiorgan failure, is one of the leading causes of death in COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n

McCullumsmith is now leading a clinical trial through The University of Toledo Medical Center to administer fluoxetine on an outpatient basis with the goal of determining whether the drug can reduce serious outcomes such as hospitalization, intubation and death from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a novel approach that\u2019s increasingly drawing attention.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a French study published in the high-profile journal Molecular Psychiatry found that COVID-19 patients who were taking antidepressants, including fluoxetine, were significantly less likely to be intubated or die from the disease.<\/p>\n

McCullumsmith was not involved in that research, but said it adds weight to the theory that antidepressants may be useful in the battle against COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cFluoxetine is a well-studied, FDA-approved medication with a strong safety profile for its approved uses,\u201d she said. \u201cThis investigation has tremendous potential. What we hope to show is people may still get sick, but the second stage, the toxic stage where people get intubated and have multiorgan failure, can be prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullumsmith also aims to study whether administering fluoxetine early after diagnosis might be able to prevent patients from having long-term side effects from their infection such as inflammation and lingering damage to the heart, lungs and other organ systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can attenuate or stop the cytokine storm, what\u2019s the impact on organ damage further down the road? We don\u2019t really know what\u2019s driving that,\u201d she said. \u201cThis research could have major implications beyond just dealing with acute cases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A physician-researcher at UToledo’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences is evaluating whether a common antidepressant might prevent a dangerous complication of COVID-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":64533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,38,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64489"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64491,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64489\/revisions\/64491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}