The research, published Nov. 25 in Neuroimmunology Reports, found a combination of guanfacine and N-acetylcysteine successfully relieved brain fog in eight out of 12 long COVID-19 patients participating in the study.
Larger, placebo-controlled clinical trials are needed to definitively assess the drugs’ benefits, researchers said. Still, these medications — which are safe, affordable and widely available — may be worth prescribing to long COVID-19 patients with brain fog in the absence of other treatment options.
“There’s a paucity of treatment out there for long COVID brain fog, so when I kept seeing the benefits of this treatment in patients, I felt a sense of urgency to disseminate this information,” study author Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and of neurology at Yale, said in a Dec. 13 news release.
