There are currently no evidence-based treatments for long COVID, but a case study reports two long COVID patients in California "completely alleviated" COVID-19 symptoms by taking daily antihistamines.
At the moment, the evidence is still accounted as a personal experience, but researchers say their stories could give hope and point them "to the right direction for investigating future treatment," according to ScienceAlert.
Widely available, over-the-counter drugs, such as antihistamines are generally safe to take as long as they don't interfere with other medications.
A sign informs about the possibility to get vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19) in a pharmacy on February 9, 2022 in Berlin, amid the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic.
A case study co-authored by nursing scholars at the University of California concluded that antihistamines "may provide relief for the millions of people suffering from the painful, debilitating symptoms of long COVID-19 that impair daily functioning."
"Most patients tell us that providers have not recommended anything that has helped," says nurse Melissa Pinto from the University of California, Irvine.
"If patients wish to try over-the-counter antihistamines, I urge them to do so under medical supervision."
She stressed that providers may not know about new potential treatments, so patients should be active in their care, research, and set appointments with providers to help create a "regimen that will work."
"Promising" treatment for long COVID symptoms
The case study recently published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, describes two healthy middle-aged women with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), who have been using antihistamines for enhanced daily function, now sustained for almost a year.
"Patients tell us they wish more than anything that they could work and do the most basic activities they used to before they got sick with long COVID. They are desperately searching for something to help them get back on their feet," said the report's corresponding author, Melissa Pinto, UCI associate professor of nursing. The professor notes that there is currently no cure for PASC, only symptom management.
One patient who have been on a prescription of 50 mg hydroxyzine pamoate for more than nine months said that she's back at full-time work and achieved 90 percent of her pre-illness functioning.
Meanwhile, the second patient, a middle-aged teacher, noticed her brain fog and fatigue had improved after switching her antihistamine medication from fexofenadine to 25 milligrams of diphenhydramine.
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Remarkable near-complete recoveries, "not the first stories of their kind"
Now that long COVID or PASC cases are surging in synchrony with the current pandemic, similar symptoms are finally getting the attention they deserve.
Renewed research on antihistamines showed clinical improvement in their lingering symptoms in over 70 percent who took antihistamines in a trial.
According to scientists, the two promising case reports from California could help kickstart the process of putting antihistamines to the test for long COVID treatment.
"The next steps for this research into antihistamine treatment are to conduct broad-based trials in order to evaluate efficacy and to develop dosage schedules for clinical practice guidelines," Pinto said.
"The possibility that an easy-to-access, over-the-counter medication could ease some of the [long COVID] symptoms should offer hope to the estimated 54 million people worldwide who have been in distress for months or even years."
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