Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36268458›Full record

ArticleHealth science reports2022

The effect of selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors on clinical outcome of COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Dena Firouzabadi, Fatemeh Kheshti, Saeed Abdollahifard, Erfan Taherifard, Mohammad Reza Kheshti

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health science reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Neuroimmune pathophysiology of long COVID.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Dena FirouzabadiDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran.ORCID 0000-0003-0257-8984
Fatemeh KheshtiStudent Research Committee Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran.ORCID 0000-0003-1896-8557
Saeed AbdollahifardStudent Research Committee Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran.ORCID 0000-0002-9338-7675
Erfan TaherifardMPH department Shiraz University of Medical Science Shiraz Iran.ORCID 0000-0002-9101-0321
Mohammad Reza KheshtiStudent Research Committee Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran.ORCID 0000-0002-6007-3303
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences · IRShiraz University · IR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background and Aim: Due to the high social and economic burden and also mortality and morbidity caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the past few years, researchers have aimed at finding solutions to suppressing the severity of infection. Recently, selective serotonin and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSRI/SNRI) have been investigated as an adjuvant treatment for COVID-19. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of SSRI/SNRIs on outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, a comprehensive search strategy consisting of relevant words was performed by two researchers in PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE libraries. Studies reporting the effect of SSRI and/or SNRI use in COVID-19 patients' outcome were included. Hospitalization, mortality, hospitalization event, and length of hospital stay were considered as main outcomes of this study. Analysis was carried out using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA-version 2) and final data were reported as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Our search led to the final selection of 9 articles including 15,287 patients. The effect of fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, and the overall effect of SSRI/SNRI use on mortality of COVID-19 patients were investigated in 3, 2, and 7 articles, respectively. The results of our analyses showed that these medications could significantly decrease mortality of COVID-19 patients (OR and 95% [CI]: 0.595 [0.467-0.758], 0.620 [0.469-0.821], and 0.596 [0.437-0.813]). The effect of SSRI/SNRIs on hospitalization events of COVID-19 patients was not significant (OR: 0.240% and 95% CI: 0.041-1.4). Also, length of hospital stay was longer in patients who administrated SSRIs. Conclusion: According to this study's results, SSRI/SNRIs may be effective in reducing mortality of COVID-19 patients, suggesting the superiority of fluvoxamine to fluoxetine. The safety profile and affordable cost of SSRI/SNRIs for a short-term use may be other reasons to propose them as beneficial medications in preventing mortality in COVID-19.

Indexed as

COVID‐19selective serotonin reuptake inhibitorsserotonin‐norepinephrine reuptake InhibitorSNRISSRI

Identifiers

PMID36268458
PMCPMC9577115
OpenAlexW4306672679

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.