Thread by @DrEricDing

💡WOW—a cheap generic anti-depressant Fluvoxamine that costs just $4 reduced #COVID19 hospitalizations risk by ~30%… or from 16% in placebo to 11% in drug group. It even reduced mortality by 91%! #Fluvoxamine 🧵

2) Because it has already been approved by the FDA for mental health treatment, doctors can begin to prescribe it under certain parameters. The relatively modest cost means it could be highly beneficial in parts of the world with few resources. washingtonpost.com/science/2021/1…

3) The study, published Wednesday in the Lancet journal, found that giving high-risk covid-19 patients fluvoxamine — 100 mg twice daily for 10 days — early in their treatment reduced the need for hospitalization. thelancet.com/journals/langl…

4) The clinical trial took place from January to August and included roughly 1,500 people at 11 sites in Brazil. The participants were adults who were symptomatic with covid-19 and at heightened risk of severe illness because of other health problems.

5) About half of the participants received fluvoxamine, while the other half got a placebo—pills for 10 days at home.
In the group that took fluvoxamine, 11 percent needed hospitalization or an extended emergency room stay, compared with 16 percent of those who got the placebo.

6) but the drug is not prescribed much during COVID. Too bad there isn’t any “cult following” for this a well tested classic cheap drug said one scientist, unlike other unproven drugs that shall not be named.

7) because the drug isn’t used enough during the pandemic — hence @StephenAtHome suggested jokingly they should call Fluvoxamine this… yes this is a real photo from @colbertlateshow

8) All kidding aside — it’s quite a promising drug for COVID patients.

https://twitter.com/WesElyMD/status/1453703973450485761

9) So about the 91% lower mortality seen for the drug #Fluvoxamine vs placebo— it’s a comparison of 1 death vs 12 deaths. That said the 91% lower risk has a wide 95% confidence interval of 53% to 99% — still amazing.

10) to be clear, the 91% mortality reduction is among those who took at least 80% of their medication doses. But if comparing just those given the drug vs placebo, it was about a 1/3rd reduction in mortality. Still good. But big difference—could be loss of blinding difference.

https://twitter.com/ddrekonja/status/1453784011038412808

11) Because fluvoxamine is already approved for treating O.C.D., doctors can already prescribe it “off label”. But Dr. @boulware_dr said that prescriptions of the drug had increased only slightly—“It hasn’t really gotten any cult following,” nytimes.com/live/2021/10/2…

12) “That’s really good,” said @boulware_dr. Plus, he added, “it’s not a shiny new, expensive drug. The nice thing about this is it has a known safety profile.”
nytimes.com/live/2021/10/2…