This study evaluates the effects of the addition of chlorpromazine to the standard therapeutic protocol in COVID 19 patients hospitalized for respiratory symptom management (score 3-5 WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement).~The investigators have observed in GHU-Paris psychiatry Hospital units (140 beds), significantly lower prevalence of symptomatic and severe forms of COVID-19 in patients (3%) than in the health workers operating in the same facilities (19% of nurses and 18% of physicians). COVID-psychiatry units report similar feedback in France, Spain, and Italy. One hypothesis could be that psychotropic drugs have a protective action on COVID-19 and protect patients from symptomatic and virulent forms of COVID-19.~This hypothesis is consistent with research studies that have shown that several psychotropic drugs inhibit in vitro viral replication of the coronaviruses MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1. The SARS-CoV-2 has many characteristics in common with the coronavirus family and has phylogenetic similarities to the SARS-CoV-1 engaged in the 2002-2003 outbreak. It is, therefore, possible that one or more psychotropic drugs having demonstrated efficacy against MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1 also have anti-SARS-CoV-2 antiviral activity.~The current global epidemic of COVID-19, with a high number of deaths in many countries, makes it urgent to search drugs potentially useful to reduce the severity and lethality of the infection. Drug repositioning represents a possible alternative to the news medicines discovery. This strategy makes it possible to eliminate many stages of development; it makes it possible to deploy a therapy whose side effects are known and which physicians already well know how to handle.~To confirm the hypothesis of the antiviral action of chlorpromazine on SARS-CoV-2, a preclinical in vitro experiment began in April 2020 at the level III high-security biological laboratory at the Pasteur Institute (in collaboration with the GHU PARIS Psychiatry & Neurosciences). The first results are encouraging and show a marked antiviral effect of chlorpromazine on SARS-CoV-2. Technical replicas are underway to validate these preliminary results.~By integrating all these evidence, the investigators hypothesize that chlorpromazine could decrease the unfavorable evolution of COVID-19 infection when administered at the onset of respiratory signs.
This study evaluates the effects of the addition of chlorpromazine to the standard therapeutic protocol in COVID-19 patients hospitalized for respiratory symptom management (score 3-5 WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement).