{"id":14368,"date":"2026-03-11T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=14368"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:46:26","slug":"comparative-efficacy-and-safety-of-pharmacological-interventions-for-the-treatment-of-long-covid-in-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=14368","title":{"rendered":"Comparative efficacy and safety of pharmacological interventions for the treatment of long COVID in adults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Hailu Zhou,\u00a0Fei Jiang,\u00a0Zhigang Jiang<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, represents a major global pandemic of the 21st century, with long-term effects termed long COVID. This systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) evaluated pharmacological interventions for adults with long COVID, incorporating randomized controlled trials and adjusted observational studies. Primary outcomes included all-cause mortality, hospitalization, ICU admission, and mechanical ventilation; secondary outcomes covered symptom recovery across five categories, with safety assessed via adverse events. Results from random-effects models showed that saline nasal irrigation (SMD=21.10, 95% CI [16.91, 25.30]), nitrilotriacetic acid trisodium (SMD=7.40 [5.79, 9.01]), tetra sodium pyrophosphate (SMD=3.69 [2.61, 4.77]), and sodium gluconate (SMD=3.01 [1.92, 4.09]) significantly improved anosmia versus control. For thrombosis, rivaroxaban reduced arterial (OR=0.33 [0.01, 8.19]) and venous thrombotic events (OR=0.12 [0.01, 0.97]), while therapeutic-dose anticoagulants lowered thrombotic risks but increased major bleeding events (OR=1.86 [1.19, 2.89]) compared to prophylactic dosing. This NMA provides comparative evidence to guide treatment strategies for long COVID, highlighting the need for further research as new evidence emerges.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td>Comments:<\/td><td>68 pages, 7 figures, 1 table<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Subjects:<\/td><td><strong>Other Quantitative Biology (q-bio.OT)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cite as:<\/td><td><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2601.11861\">arXiv:2601.11861<\/a>&nbsp;[q-bio.OT]<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>(or&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2601.11861v1\">arXiv:2601.11861v1<\/a>&nbsp;[q-bio.OT]<\/strong>&nbsp;for this version)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2601.11861\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/arXiv.2601.11861<\/a>Focus to learn more<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hailu Zhou,\u00a0Fei Jiang,\u00a0Zhigang Jiang Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, represents a major global pandemic of the 21st century, with long-term effects termed long COVID. This systematic review and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[794,938,939,608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-effectiveness-over-time","category-safety","category-safety-studies","category-vaccine-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14376,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions\/14376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}