ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2024
Low-dose naltrexone and NAD+ for the treatment of patients with persistent fatigue symptoms after COVID-19.
Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- The use of naltrexone in the treatment of chronic pain: a systematic review.Pain management · 2024Pooled it
- Article
- Low-Dose Naltrexone: What is the Evidence? A Narrative Review.Advances in therapy · 2026Review
- The expanding potential of low-dose naltrexone in clinical practice with a focus on long COVID.The mental health clinician · 2026Article
- NADThe Journal of general virology · 2026Review
- Persistent prostaglandin E2 upregulation and hormonal multi-resistance: A hypothesis for long COVID.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Article
- Current status and future perspectives on the mechanistic and pathophysiological understanding of long COVID.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of long COVID.Virology journal · 2026Review
- Long COVID: a review of mechanisms and treatment modalities.Inflammopharmacology · 2026Review
- Case Report: Mitochondrial insufficiency underlies cholinergic failure in post-vaccination long COVID: a candidate treatment protocol.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- A systems microbiology framework for reproducible multi-dataset omics integration with application to long COVID.Frontiers in systems biology · 2026Article
- Candidate treatments for long COVID: a narrative review of expert and patient-driven priorities.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- COVID-19-associated neurological and psychological manifestations.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2025Review
- Effects of nicotinamide riboside on NAD+ levels, cognition, and symptom recovery in long-COVID: a randomized controlled trial.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Naltrexone dose-selectively modulates goal-directed behavior and the hypothalamic proteome in rats.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Article
- Stellate Ganglion Block for the Management of Long COVID Symptoms: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Cureus · 2025Article
- GPCR drug discovery: new agents, targets and indications.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2025Review
- The Effect on Quality of Life of Therapeutic Plasmapheresis and Intravenous Immunoglobulins on a Population of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients with Elevated β-Adrenergic and M3-Muscarinic Receptor Antibodies-A Pilot Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Therapeutic options for the treatment of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19: a scoping review.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A subset of patients experiences persistent fatigue symptoms after COVID-19, and patients may develop long COVID, which is characterized by lasting systemic symptoms. No treatments for this condition have been validated and are urgently warranted. In this pilot study, we assessed whether treatment with low-dose naltrexone (LDN, 4.5 mg/day) and supplementation with NAD + through iontophoresis patches could improve fatigue symptoms and quality of life in 36 patients with persistent moderate/severe fatigue after COVID-19. We detected a significant increase from baseline in SF-36 survey scores after 12 weeks of treatment (mean total SF-36 score 36.5 [SD: 15.6] vs. 52.1 [24.8]; p < 0.0001), suggestive of improvement of quality of life. Furthermore, participants scored significantly lower on the Chalder fatigue scale after 12 weeks of treatment (baseline: 25.9 [4.6], 12 weeks: 17.4 [9.7]; p < 0.0001). We found a subset of 52 % of patients to be responders after 12 weeks of treatment. Treatment was generally safe, with mild adverse events previously reported for LDN, which could be managed with dose adjustments. The iontophoresis patches were associated with mild, short-lived skin irritation in 25 % of patients. Our data suggest treatment with LDN and NAD+ is safe and may be beneficial in a subset of patients with persistent fatigue after COVID-19. Larger randomized controlled trials will have to confirm our data and determine which patient subpopulations might benefit most from this strategy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.