A new paper, published in The Lancet on July 8th 2026 and reported on by News Medical, assesses the efficacy and safety of the medications rivaroxaban (anticoagulant medication), colchicine (anti-inflammatory medication), and famotidine–loratadine (antihistamine) for people with Long Covid.
The paper, titled “‘Efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban, colchicine, and famotidine–loratadine with specialist supportive clinical care for fatigue in patients with post-COVID-19 condition in the UK: a multisite, open-label, randomised controlled trial,” aimed to assess whether these medications could reduce fatigue in people with Long Covid.
Please note that we are sharing these interesting clinical trial results for information purposes. We are not recommending self treatment with antihistamine drugs (as they do have side effects including fatigue) or the prescribing of colchicine for Long Covid or ME/CFS.
Extracts from News Medical article:
Over-the-counter antihistamines and a prescription anti-inflammatory drug both have a small benefit in reducing long Covid fatigue among people receiving care from specialist long Covid clinics, according to new findings from a large clinical trial led by UCL and UCLH.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), involved nearly 800 adults in England with long Covid who were randomly assigned either usual care or one of three types of drugs: a combination of antihistamines (allergy medicines), an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine (used to treat gout), or a blood thinner called rivaroxaban (typically used to prevent blood clots and strokes).
The research team found that all groups experienced a meaningful reduction in their self-reported fatigue over 12 weeks (improving an average of 4.3 points on a 40-point scale), supporting the idea that specialist long Covid care can lead to important improvements in symptoms.
Those taking antihistamines and colchicine, but not the blood thinner rivaroxaban, saw a small additional benefit in fatigue reduction at 12 weeks (an extra 1.5 point improvement on the scale). However, this benefit was not sustained at 24 weeks (12 weeks after the participants stopped taking the drugs).
Dr Charles Shepherd, MEA Hon. Medical Adviser, explains further:
Results from a large UK clinical trial indicate that an over-the-counter antihistamine/allergy reducing drug and a prescription only anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine could be helpful treatments for reducing fatigue in people with Long Covid.
Participants enrolled at either ICP trial sites or drug-only trial sites were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to receive colchicine 500 μg twice daily, rivaroxaban 10 mg once daily, famotidine 40 mg with loratadine 10 mg once daily, or no drug for 12 weeks.
These findings may also be relevant to ME/CFS because allergies and inflammation are both implicated in ME/CFS. However, no proper clinical trials have been carried out to assess the use of these drugs in ME/CFS.
The trial also assessed the use of rivaroxaban, a blood thining/anticoagulant drug, and reported no benefit here.
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
