Over-the-counter antihistamines and a prescription anti-inflammatory drug both have a small benefit in reducing long COVID fatigue among people receiving care from specialist long COVID clinics, according to new findings from a large clinical trial led by UCL and UCLH.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, involved nearly 800 adults in England with long COVID who were randomly assigned to either usual care or one of three types of drugs: a combination of antihistamines (allergy medicines), an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine (used to treat gout), or a blood thinner called rivaroxaban (typically used to prevent blood clots and strokes).
The research team found that all groups experienced a meaningful reduction in their self-reported fatigue over 12 weeks (improving an average of 4.3 points on a 40-point scale), supporting the idea that specialist long COVID care can lead to important improvements in symptoms.
Those taking antihistamines and colchicine, but not the blood thinner rivaroxaban, saw a small additional benefit in fatigue reduction at 12 weeks (an extra 1.5-point improvement on the scale). However, this benefit was not sustained at 24 weeks (12 weeks after the participants stopped taking the drugs).
