A study in BMCMedicine finds that anti-depressants, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, may prevent COVID-19 infection spread in the community. Further research is warranted.
]. Further mechanistic insight into the role of SSRIs outside the central nervous system will require detailed investigation of physiology and cell biology of SSRIs in appropriate experimental systems, with particular consideration given to pharmacokinetics of therapeutically relevant SSRI concentrations.The study has a number of important limitations, largely due to its retrospective nature and focus on a cohort of mental health patients.
The time period of the study was limited to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented novel adverse effects on mental health []; also, during this period, COVID-19 was associated with the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 rather than its subsequently documented variants.
Finally, although the association of interest appeared to be present across a range of diagnostic groups, the possibility cannot be ruled out that antidepressant use may have been a marker of personal or behavioural factors conferring protection, e.g. compliance with societal restrictions and/or personal protection measures in place at the time.
In the longer term, there may be merit in investigating the utility of ADs/SSRIs for treatment of other respiratory infections using similar cell biological mechanisms to COVID-19, e.g. influenza []. For now, one can hope that the results from this study will contribute to the public health policy debate on COVID-19 management, help re-establish drug repurposing in the context of COVID-19 treatment and highlight the potential for wider clinical benefits of psychotropic drugs.
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Factors associated with acute kidney injury among preterm infants administered vancomycin: a retrospective cohort study - BMC PediatricsBackground Vancomycin (VCM) is a widely used antibiotic for the treatment of gram-positive microorganisms, with some nephrotoxic effects. Recent studies have suggested that piperacillin-tazobactam (TZP) aggravates VCM-induced nephrotoxicity in adults and adolescents. However, there is a lack of research investigating these effects in the newborn population. Therefore, this study investigates whether the concomitant use of TZP with VCM use increases the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) and to explore the factors associated with AKI in preterm infants treated with VCM. Methods This retrospective study included preterm infants with birth weight | 1,500 g in a single tertiary center who were born between 2018 and 2021 and received VCM for a minimum of 3 days. AKI was defined as an increase in serum creatinine (SCr) of at least 0.3 mg/dL and an increase in SCr of at least 1.5 times baseline during and up to 1 week after discontinuation of VCM. The study population was categorized as those with or without concomitant use of TZP. Data on perinatal and postnatal factors associated with AKI were collected and analyzed. Results Of the 70 infants, 17 died before 7 postnatal days or antecedent AKI and were excluded, while among the remaining participants, 25 received VCM with TZP (VCM + TZP) and 28 VCM without TZP (VCM—TZP). Gestational age (GA) at birth (26.4 ± 2.8 weeks vs. 26.5 ± 2.6 weeks, p = 0.859) and birthweight (750.4 ± 232.2 g vs. 838.1 ± 268.7 g, p = 0.212) were comparable between the two groups. There were no significant differences in the incidence of AKI between groups. Multivariate analysis showed that GA (adjusted OR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.35–0.98, p = 0.042), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) (adjusted OR: 5.23, 95% CI: 0.67–41.05, p = 0.115), and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) (adjusted OR: 37.65, 95% CI: 3.08–459.96, p = 0.005) were associated with AKI in the study population. Conclusions In very low birthweight infants, concomitant use of TZP did not increase the r
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