In a new case report this week , medical professional in California say that at least two of their patients have get substantial and speedy easing from their long covid symptoms with the avail of over - the - sideboard antihistamine . Importantly , the findings are only anecdotic at this dot , but they may orient to young avenue of research for understanding and treating this complex consideration .
The account , publishedMonday in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners , concerns two middle - aged woman believed to have caught covid-19 during the first twelvemonth of the pandemic . Both were generally sound and regularly do prior to their illness , and both developed a sort of loiter symptoms follow their initial tear of sickness . These chronic symptom included fatigue , cognitive impairment ( often roll in the hay as brain fog ) , and an unfitness to allow physical exertion , while one patient role even appeared to develop “ covid toes”—the discoloration and pain along a person ’s toes and fingers that have been seen in some patients post - covid .
Despite seek aesculapian care , neither patient ’s symptom better much over the next several months . Both had a history of allergic reaction and sometimes used antihistamine to cover them , though .
A pharmacy technician grabs a bottle of drugs off a shelve at a pharmacy.Photo: George Frey (Getty Images)
In one case , six month after her initial symptoms began , the char ( who had a history of allergic reaction triggered by dairy farm ) use up a piece of high mallow , which led her to take an over - the - counter antihistamine medicine . Soon after , she experienced “ considerable substitute of fatigue and meliorate power to focus , ” which then returned over the next three Clarence Shepard Day Jr. when she contain taking the medication . In the second case , the woman switched to a different antihistamine medicine than usual 13 months into her long covid , after which she experienced the same normal of almost straightaway relief . Both women have since continued to routinely take antihistamine , and both have reported a nearly - full recovery of their symptom , even allowing them to practise regularly again .
There have been story among long covid patient mathematical group on social media about the possible benefits of antihistamine . These event were even play to the attention of these researchers , primarily from the University of California , Irvine , through member of Survivor Corps , a recollective covid advocacy mathematical group hosted on Facebook . But near as they can tell , these are the first case reports in the literature to document the potential of antihistamines for affected role with long covid , also know as postacutesequelaeof SARS - CoV-2 , or PASC .
“ The clinical presentations described here are uniform with other research on PASC and offer anecdotic evidence for treatment of PASC symptom with a highly accessible over - the - parry histamine antagonist , ” the author wrote .
As the authors note , there is clean-cut evidence that a nonadaptive immune organization can kick in to covid symptoms , including aspect of our immunity that could beregulatedthrough antihistamine . So there may be a plausible mechanics for their winner here . But there are some very important considerations to be noted as well .
For one , neither woman test irrefutable for an fighting grammatical case of covid-19 , though they did experience common acute symptom such as fever , cough , and body aches ( in one casing , the fair sex ’s unwellness reportedly set out in January 2020 , when PCR examination was badly limited ) . Nor did either patient test overconfident for antibodies for the coronavirus at a later escort . These negative result do not mean that they did n’t contract covid-19 . Neither PCR nor antibody tests are 100 % precise and mass ’s antibody level can decline over sentence , while some never develop a robust antibody response to contagion . But it could hold some importance for compare the potential of these handling for those with antibodies and those without .
Another factor is that long covid is suspected to have more than one ascendent grounds . So even if antihistamines can benefit some patient , they may not do much of anything for others . In any case , the authors say that more research is needed to test out the promise of these drug for long covid . And they also rede that if patient role want to explore these discourse the right way now , they should ideally work together with their medical provider to do so .
“ Most patient role tell us that provider have not advocate anything that has help . If patient role wish to stress OTC antihistamines , I urge them to do so under aesculapian supervision . And because providers may not know about fresh possible treatments , I would promote patients to be dynamic 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 , ” say bailiwick author Melissa Pinto , an associate professor of nursing at UCI , in astatement . “ The next step for this research into antihistamine treatment are to conduct broad - based trial in ordering to evaluate efficaciousness and to develop dosage agenda for clinical pattern guidelines . ”
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