Intermountain Healthcare Researchers Find Most Commonly Prescribed Class of Anti-Depressant Medications Do Not Reduce COVID Severity

Salt Lake City, UT, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A new study by researchers at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City finds that the most commonly prescribed class of anti-depressants does not help reduce the severity of illness or even death for people who get COVID, as once thought.

In the early days of the COVID pandemic, some observational studies suggested there may be a link between greater survival and lower COVID severity in patients taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants in America.  

It’s not surprising that early on researchers thought there might be a connection. These drugs have both anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet effects, and physicians saw a potential that SSRIs could possibly prevent the intense inflammatory response that is a hallmark of severe COVID.

However, new research from Intermountain Healthcare finds that is not the case for people who test positive for COVID in an outpatient setting.

“At the start of the pandemic, everyone was searching for how to help prevent severe COVID, and SSRIs became a focus of interest,” said Heidi T. May, PhD, principal investigator of the study and cardiovascular epidemiologist with the Intermountain Healthcare Heart and Vascular Program. “However, those initial observations of a possible connection didn’t pan out when we looked for a possible link in our patient population.”

The findings from the study were presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022, which is being held in Chicago.  

In this retrospective study, Intermountain researchers examined 33,088 people who tested positive for COVID-19 between March 14, 2020 – December 31, 2021, in an Intermountain outpatient setting. Of those people, 8,272 were also on a fluoxetine/fluvoxamine SSRI.

Researchers found that hospitalization and death were significantly greater in the SSRI group than the non-SSRI group, and that not being on an SSRI was associated with a lower 14-day COVID-19 hospitalization risk.

This doesn’t mean that being on an SSRI prompts severe COVID, but that in this study, they didn’t offer any protection against COVID, said Dr. May

“These results add to the body of research that the relationship that, for patients testing positive in an outpatient setting, SSRI medications didn’t reduce the risk of their then-mild COVID turning into severe COVID, or dying of the virus,” she said.

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Headquartered in Utah with locations in eight states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 3,900 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called SelectHealth with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs.

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• Intermountain Healthcare caregiver visits with a patient

CONTACT: Jess Gomez
Intermountain Healthcare
801-718-8495
jess.gomez@imail.org