Post by The Lancet Infectious Diseases

📢A new trial of repurposed drugs in UK adults with long COVID found small improvements in self-reported fatigue beyond usual care for two drugs at 12 weeks, but this benefit did not persist after treatment was stopped  💡The STIMULATE-ICP consortium tested three repurposed drugs—colchicine (anti-inflammatory), famotidine–loratadine (antihistamines), and rivaroxaban (anticoagulant)—against no drug in an open-label, randomised trial in adults not hospitalised for COVID-19 who were accessing NHS long COVID clinical care centres in the UK. All participants received specialist-led long COVID care. Self-reported fatigue improved in all groups by 3 months, with adjusted analyses showing small but statistically significant reductions in fatigue in the colchicine and famotidine–loratadine groups compared with the no-drug group. Treatment was stopped at 12 weeks, and no significant differences in self-reported fatigue were seen 12 weeks later for any treatment group versus no drug. 🔦The authors say these findings do not support routine use of these specific drugs for long COVID and call for future trials of other repurposed drugs, combination therapies, and care delivery approaches, as well as studies to identify subgroups of patients who might benefit. Read the full paper here: https://bit.ly/4goTpNw #LongCOVID #Fatigue #RepurposedDrugs #ClinicalTrial #UKNHS Emma Wall, Gordon Prescott, Hakim-Moulay Dehbi, Janet Scott, rachael evans, Kim Horstmanshof, Caroline Watkins, Melissa Heightman, Amitava Banerjee