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Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

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Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#21

Post by jrochkind1 »

ericsoderstrom wrote: post #6
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

The sample size is small but the effect is strong, stronger than you almost ever see for this kind of thing. (e.g. i suspect a tiny dose of antiviral or synthetic antibody would be effective for prophylaxis or early treatment. By the time somebody is seriously ill they are sick from the cytokine storm and possibly clearing the virus doesnt change the course of the disease.)

With so many studies being done on covid (by basically every lab in the world capable of doing so), the self selection biases are especially strong. That is, every study that confirms some statistically significant effect (often with a small sample size) will be published, and all of the corresponding studies which confirm the null hypothesis are buried. So you get a flood of seemingly compelling early evidence for c…

yup.

If you flip a coin 10 times, there is less than a 5% chance you will get 3 or fewer tails -- so if you do, that looks "statistically significant" that you have a weighted coin (which still doesn't guarantee it).

But if 500 people in different places flip a coin 10 times, what are the chances at least one of them will get 3 or fewer tails? Oops. It doesn't mean your chances of having a weighted coin went up.

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#22

Post by JoshTko »

amelius wrote: post #16
JoshTko wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce severity in several different studies. Everyone should consider taking it. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/search?q=vitamin+D&restrict... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN30emwcNS4

Yes, but are governments recommending it? Are doctors recommending it? Is WHO recommending it? I didn't hear anything about it except from that one post on HN, which I think is quite strange. If this works, then shouldn't there be a nation-wide plan to introduce more vitamin D in the diets of people?

It was part of the regimen that Trump took when he got Covid.

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#23

Post by ekianjo »

colossal wrote: post #19
JoshTko wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce severity in several different studies. Everyone should consider taking it. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/search?q=vitamin+D&restrict... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN30emwcNS4

It has shown to be correlated with better outcomes. It is also correlated with being healthier, being active, and eating better. As far as I understand there is no strong evidence for a causal relationship. To be clear, if you live in the northern hemisphere, you should be taking vitamin D. It's cheap and at worst harmless. But that's not the same as saying it will improve the outcome of covid patients.

Not just that there is a clinical trial done in spain where giving vitamin D as metabolized clearly improved covid19 patient outcomes.

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#24

Post by [deleted] »

amelius wrote: post #16
JoshTko wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce severity in several different studies. Everyone should consider taking it. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/search?q=vitamin+D&restrict... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN30emwcNS4

Yes, but are governments recommending it? Are doctors recommending it? Is WHO recommending it? I didn't hear anything about it except from that one post on HN, which I think is quite strange. If this works, then shouldn't there be a nation-wide plan to introduce more vitamin D in the diets of people?

[deleted]

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#26

Post by lambdaba »

amelius wrote: post #20
lambdaba wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you unconvinced? You know basically vitamin D is a kind of "master regulator" of metabolism / immune system. Deficiency of vitamin D is immune system dysfunction.

I believe the studies, but my question is why do we let the health system suffer if there is such a simple solution? Why isn't "take vitamin D" in the same list as "wash your hands often" and "keep distance"?

I've seen it recommended by some authorities, but very timidly.

There's no single answer. Vitamin D is basically a panacea, but for some reason most medical professionals don't know. Modern western medicine is on the whole ignorant of the role of vitamin deficiencies in disease.

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#27

Post by mrfusion »

amelius wrote: post #20
lambdaba wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you unconvinced? You know basically vitamin D is a kind of "master regulator" of metabolism / immune system. Deficiency of vitamin D is immune system dysfunction.

I believe the studies, but my question is why do we let the health system suffer if there is such a simple solution? Why isn't "take vitamin D" in the same list as "wash your hands often" and "keep distance"?

Are you sure the government cares about your health?

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#28

Post by lambdaba »

colossal wrote: post #19
JoshTko wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce severity in several different studies. Everyone should consider taking it. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/search?q=vitamin+D&restrict... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN30emwcNS4

It has shown to be correlated with better outcomes. It is also correlated with being healthier, being active, and eating better. As far as I understand there is no strong evidence for a causal relationship. To be clear, if you live in the northern hemisphere, you should be taking vitamin D. It's cheap and at worst harmless. But that's not the same as saying it will improve the outcome of covid patients.

Vitamin D is key to T-cell function. T-cell immunity is involved in mild / asymptomatic covid cases (vs antibody immunity).

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#29

Post by mrob »

lambdaba wrote: post #15
amelius wrote: post #10

Several months ago there was a post about vitamin D supposedly being effective in preventing hospitalization. What happened to that idea?

Yes, dosage should be 10k IU / day for starters with 5mg vitamin K2. Fat-soluble so take with a meal. Vitamin D depletes Vitamin A and magnesium, get the former from foods and supplement the latter as magnesium glycinate and/or chloride. Other common & relevant deficiencies are boron and zinc, especially zinc.

10k IU/day exceeds the Tolerable Upper Intake as determined by the US's National Academy of Medicine, the European Food Safety Authority, and similar organizations. Medical doctor Deva Boone posted a report of toxicity at half that dose:

https://www.devaboone.com/post/vitamin-d-part-2-shannon-s-st...

This post and related posts about vitamin D were discussed on HN. See:

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=devaboone.com

Re: Early clinical trial shows anti-depressant prevents hospitalization from Covid

#30

Post by RobinL »

ericsoderstrom wrote: post #6
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

The sample size is small but the effect is strong, stronger than you almost ever see for this kind of thing. (e.g. i suspect a tiny dose of antiviral or synthetic antibody would be effective for prophylaxis or early treatment. By the time somebody is seriously ill they are sick from the cytokine storm and possibly clearing the virus doesnt change the course of the disease.)

With so many studies being done on covid (by basically every lab in the world capable of doing so), the self selection biases are especially strong. That is, every study that confirms some statistically significant effect (often with a small sample size) will be published, and all of the corresponding studies which confirm the null hypothesis are buried. So you get a flood of seemingly compelling early evidence for c…

Indeed. Presumably if it is effective, you could study people who are using Fluvoxamine for its anti-depressive properties, and you'd find that (other things equal, using something like propensity score matching), they have less serious cases of COVID.
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