New Delhi: Forty per cent fewer people who tested positive for Covid showed long Covid symptoms over a 10-month period, after a two-week course of the common diabetes drug, metformin, at the time of infection, as compared to those who only received placebo, a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal Friday, has found.
Long-term symptoms, such as fatigue or breathlessness, which some people experience even after 12 weeks or more of SARS-CoV-2 infection, are referred to as long Covid — an emerging chronic illness affecting millions of people around the world. Currently, there are no proven treatments or ways to prevent long Covid, other than reducing the risk of infection in the first place.
The new study, which included 1,126 overweight (body mass index of 25 and above) and obese people (body mass index of 30 and above) found that 6.3 per cent of participants who took metformin within three days of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, reported a long Covid diagnosis within 10 months, compared to 10.4 per cent of those who received placebo. The trial was held between December 2020 and January 2022.
Metformin is used to control blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with lifestyle and occurs over the years.
This is the first published randomised control trial to suggest that diabetes medication taken during the acute phase of Covid may be able to reduce the risk of long-term symptoms.
“Long Covid is a significant public health emergency that may have lasting physical health, mental health, and economic impacts, especially in socio-economically marginalised groups,” the study’s author, Dr. Carolyn Bramante of the University of Minnesota Medical School, USA, said in a statement.
She added: “There is an urgent need to find potential treatments and ways to prevent this disease. Our study showed that metformin, a medication that is safe, low-cost, and widely available, substantially reduces the risk of being diagnosed with long Covid if taken when first infected with coronavirus.”
The author, however, cautioned that the trial does not indicate whether metformin would be effective as a treatment for those who already have long Covid.
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Trial details
According to the study report, those who participated in the trial were at higher risk of severe Covid as they were overweight or obese, but had not required hospitalisation from the infection. They were over 30 years of age, had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within the three days previous to joining the trial, but had no former history of being infected with the virus.
The two-week administration of metformin was followed by a 10-month check, with data being gathered through a self-report questionnaire every 30 days.
A statistical analysis of the data gathered showed that metformin prevented over 40 per cent of cases of long Covid among the participants in the trial, with 6.3 per cent of participants who were given metformin reporting a long Covid diagnosis within 10 months, compared to 10.4 per cent of those receiving a placebo.
Other branches of the trial also looked at symptoms in patients who had been given ivermectin (a drug used to treat parasitic infections) and fluvoxamine (used for psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder), after testing positive for Covid, but found that neither prevented long Covid.
“Previous studies have found that metformin stops the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating in the lab, which is consistent with predictions from our mathematical modelling of viral replication, so that might be what is causing the reduction in both severe Covid-19 and Long Covid diagnoses seen in this trial,” said the study’s co-author, David Odde of the University of Minnesota, in a statement.
There are some limitations to the study, however, as acknowledged by the authors of the study. This includes the fact that the trial excluded those with a body mass index under 25 and those younger than 30 years of age.
The authors pointed out therefore, that it is unknown if the findings of this study could be generalised for those populations.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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