Psychotropic drugs: Therapeutic perspectives against Covid-19

ABSTRACT

Based on older reports about antiviral effects in vitro, several antipsychotics and antidepressants have recently been investigated for possible activity against the Covid-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2). A few have been found to be active in vitro, like chlorpromazine and some other phenothiazine antipsychotics as well as the antidepressants fluoxetin and fluvoxamine. For chlorpromazine, two clinical studies with Covid-19 patients are currently under way in France and Egypt, while for fluoxetine clinical data are not yet available. The specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluvoxamine is also a potent sigma-1 receptor agonist and has been shown to reduce inflammation in an animal model of cytokine-stress. In analogy to these findings, fluvoxamine treatment for 15 days was superior to placebo in reducing symptoms of impaired respiratory function in a first placebo-controlled clinical study. © 2021 Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart.