10 Mar 2023 • According to a new preprint study from The Lancet, Metformin appears to play a role in preventing long COVID when taken early during a COVID-19 infection. In particular, metformin led to a 42% drop in long COVID among people who had a mild to moderate COVID-19 infection.
What were the outcomes of the COVID-OUT trial?

• 1,125 agreed to do long-term follow-up for long COVID, including 564 in the metformin group and 561 in the blinded placebo group.
• The researchers included patients who were ages 30-85 with overweight or obesity, had documentation of a confirmed COVID-19 infection, had fewer than 7 days of symptoms, had no known prior infection, and joined the study within 3 days of their positive test.
• The study included monthly follow-up for 300 days. Participants indicated whether they received a long COVID diagnosis from their GP which was later confirmed by the researchers.
• The metformin doses were doled out over 14 days: with 500mg on day 1, 500mg BD for the next 4 days, and then 500mg in the morning and 1,000mg in the evening for the remaining 9 days.
• The risk reduction for metformin was 42% versus the placebo, which was consistent across subgroups, including vaccination status and different COVID-19 variants.
• When metformin was started less than 4 days after COVID-19 symptoms started, the effect was potentially even greater - decreased development of long covid by over 50%
• Neither ivermectin nor fluvoxamine showed any benefits for preventing long COVID.

The results are now under journal review but show consistent findings from other recent studies Source: Medscape | Read full story Lancet Preprint Study: Click here to download