Depressed COVID Patients Respond Much Better Than Expected to SSRI Antidepressants

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The COVID pandemic has actually caused a substantial boost in psychological health issue. Now, in some excellent news, a pilot research study has actually revealed that depressed clients who have actually experienced COVID react much better to basic antidepressants than do individuals who have actually not had COVID.

Around 40% of COVID patients report the advancement of anxiety within 6 months of infection. The swelling brought on by COVID is thought to be the primary factor for the advancement of anxiety. Now brand-new research study has actually revealed that around 90% of clients who have actually experienced COVID react to SSRIs, considerably more than would be anticipated.

This work exists at the ECNP Conference in Lisbon, and has actually been released in the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology Lead scientist Mario Mazza MD, San Raffaele University, Milano stated:

“We know that COVID has led to an epidemic of mental health problems. Post-COVID depression is a serious issue, with around 40% of COVID patients developing depression within 6 months of infection. But this study indicates that patients who have had COVID have a better chance of managing their depression than we thought.”

The scientists, from Professor Francesco Benedetti’s Laboratory of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology at San Raffaele Hospital in Milano, dealt with 58 clients who had actually established post-COVID anxiety with SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) such as sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, and citalopram. Normally around a 3rd of clients do not react to SSRIs, however the group discovered that that 91% of those with post-COVID anxiety reacted to treatment within 4 weeks (action was determined utilizing the requirement Hamilton Depression Rating Scale: a client was thought about to have actually reacted if they revealed a 50% decrease in the scale after 4 weeks of treatment).

Dr Mazza continued:

“This is a pilot study, but it does indicate that post-COVID depression is treatable. We would normally have expected around 40 of the 58 patients to have responded positively to treatment, but in fact we found that 53 of the 58 responded. Considering the anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties of SSRI, we hypothesized that post-COVID depression triggered by infection and sustained by infection-related systemic inflammation could particularly benefit from antidepressant treatment. We are now taking this work forward to a larger scale trial. We also want to investigate whether SSRIs can also help with other post-COVID symptoms, such as cognitive impairment and fatigue, and to look at the role of inflammation in post-COVID depression.”

Commenting,Dr Livia De Picker MD PhD (University of Antwerp, Belgium) stated this research study is of specific value to the big group of clients and clinicians who are presently handling long COVID syndromes.

“Long COVID includes a mix of consistent physical, mental and neurocognitive signs after COVID-19 infection, which might provide really various in various people. Even if we still do not comprehend all the reasons for long COVID, this research study suggests post-COVID depressive signs react extremely well to serotonergic antidepressants. This does not come as a surprise to me, as current research studies have actually explained such substances might likewise secure clients versus serious COVID-19 disease and numerous antidepressants are presently under research study as COVID-19 treatment choices. I hope the existing findings will trigger additional research study into the systems through which antidepressants can assist versus both severe and long-lasting COVID-19 problems. Most notably, these findings worry the value of sufficient screening and treatment of psychological health signs in clients who experience consistent health issue after having actually been exposed to COVID-19

Dr De Picker was not associated with this work, this is an independent remark.

Reference: “Rapid response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in post-COVID depression” by Mario Mazza, Raffaella Zanardi, Mariagrazia Palladini, Patrizia Rovere-Querini, and Francesco Benedetti, 9 October 2021, European Neuropsychopharmacology
DOI: 10.1016/ j.euroneuro.202109009

This work existed at the 34 th ECNP Annual conference. The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology is Europe’s primary company operating in used neuroscience.