COVID patients on antidepressants are less likely to die: Study

According to a study, antidepressants may have beneficial effects against the worst symptoms of COVID-19.

Washington: A new study of health records from 87 health care centres across the United States found that people taking a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were less likely to die of COVID-19. The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘JAMA Network Open’.

The results add to a body of evidence indicating that SSRIs may have beneficial effects against the worst symptoms of COVID-19, although large randomised clinical trials are needed to prove this.

"We can't tell if the drugs are causing these effects, but the statistical analysis is showing significant association. There's power in the numbers," said Marina Sirota, PhD, associate professor of paediatrics and a member of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute (BCHSI) at UC San Francisco.