Sepsis could be helped with antidepressant drugs

The antidepressant drug fluvoxamine which has been used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder could also help with deadly sepsis by lowering inflammation, according to new research from the UVA School of Medicine.

Alban Gaultier, PhD, of University of Virginia Health System Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG), and his team identified the antidepressant fluvoxamine. The drug has previously been safety tested and could be fast-tracked for use in hospitals.

The study tested the drug in mice and will need to be tested in people to determine its effectiveness at battling human sepsis.

UVA Health has the report.