Antihistamines Could Help Some Long Covid Patients, New Research Suggests

In a brand new case report this week, medical professionals in California say that at the very least two of their sufferers have skilled substantial and speedy reduction from their lengthy covid signs with the assistance of over-the-counter antihistamines. Importantly, the findings are solely anecdotal at this level, however they could level to new avenues of analysis for understanding and treating this complicated situation.

The report, published Monday in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners, issues two middle-aged ladies believed to have caught covid-19 in the course of the first yr of the pandemic. Both had been wholesome and commonly exercised previous to their sickness, and each developed a wide range of lingering signs following their preliminary bout of illness. These power signs included fatigue, cognitive impairment (usually often known as mind fog), and an lack of ability to tolerate train, whereas one affected person even appeared to develop “covid toes”—the discoloration and ache alongside an individual’s toes and fingers which have been seen in some sufferers post-covid.

Despite looking for medical care, neither affected person’s signs improved a lot over the following a number of months. Both had a historical past of allergy symptoms and generally used antihistamines to deal with them, although. In one case, six months after her preliminary signs started, the lady (who had a historical past of allergy symptoms triggered by dairy) ate a bit of cheese, which led her to take an over-the-counter antihistamine medicine. Soon after, she skilled “considerable relief of fatigue and improved ability to concentrate,” which then returned over the following three days when she stopped taking the medicine. In the second case, the lady switched to a distinct antihistamine medicine than regular 13 months into her lengthy covid, after which she skilled the identical sample of just about rapid reduction. Both ladies have since continued to routinely take antihistamines, and each have reported a near-full restoration of their signs, even permitting them to train commonly once more.

There have been reviews amongst lengthy covid affected person teams on social media concerning the attainable advantages of antihistamines. These instances had been even delivered to the eye of those researchers, primarily from the University of California, Irvine, via their collaboration with Survivor Corps, a protracted covid advocacy group hosted on Facebook. But close to as they will inform, these are the primary case reviews within the literature to doc the potential of antihistamines for sufferers with lengthy covid, also called postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2, or PASC.

“The clinical presentations described here are consistent with other research on PASC and offer anecdotal evidence for treatment of PASC symptoms with a highly accessible over-the-counter histamine antagonist,” the authors wrote.

As the authors notice, there may be clear proof {that a} dysfunctional immune system can contribute to covid signs, together with points of our immunity that could possibly be regulated via antihistamines. So there could also be a believable mechanism for his or her success right here. But there are some crucial issues to be famous as nicely.

For one, neither lady examined constructive for covid-19, although they did expertise widespread acute signs corresponding to fever, cough, and physique aches (in a single case, the lady’s sickness reportedly started in January 2020, when PCR testing was severely restricted). Nor did both affected person check for antibodies for the coronavirus at a later date. These unfavorable outcomes don’t imply that they didn’t contract covid-19. Neither PCR nor antibody assessments are 100% correct and other people’s antibody ranges can wane over time, whereas some by no means develop a strong antibody response to an infection. But it might maintain some significance for evaluating the potential of those remedies for these with antibodies and people with out.

Another issue is that lengthy covid is suspected to have multiple root trigger. So even when antihistamines can profit some sufferers, they could not do a lot of something for others. In any case, the authors say that extra analysis is required to check out the promise of those medicine for lengthy covid. In the meantime, in addition they advise that if sufferers wish to discover these remedies proper now, they need to ideally work along with their medical suppliers to take action.

“Most patients tell us that providers have not recommended anything that has helped. If patients wish to try OTC antihistamines, I urge them to do so under medical supervision. And because providers may not know about new potential treatments, I would encourage patients to be active in their care and consider taking research and case reports like ours to appointments with providers so they can help create a regimen that will work,” mentioned research writer Melissa Pinto, an affiliate professor of nursing at UCI, in a statement. “The next steps for this research into antihistamine treatment are to conduct broad-based trials in order to evaluate efficacy and to develop dosage schedules for clinical practice guidelines.”