The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the launch of the second phase of clinical trials aimed at addressing the long-term impacts of Covid-19, known as long Covid. The initiative called “Researching Covid to Enhance Recovery” (RECOVER), is seeking individuals experiencing long Covid symptoms to participate in four different trials.
The first trial, named “RECOVER-VITAL,” will focus on studying how Covid-19’s long-term effects on patients’ immune systems can be treated. The second trial, “RECOVER-NEURO,” aims to find interventions for the neurological impacts of long Covid, including issues like brain fog, memory problems, and difficulty with attention, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
The third trial, “RECOVER-SLEEP,” will explore potential treatments for sleep-related issues caused by long Covid. Lastly, the “RECOVER-AUTONOMIC” trial will study treatments for problems in the autonomic nervous system induced by Covid-19. This system controls various bodily functions, such as heart rate, breathing, and digestive system activity.
In addition to these four trials, the NIH is also working on a fifth trial that aims to find treatments for the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on some individual’s ability to exercise. However, details about this trial are still in progress.
These trials will involve various medicines and therapies, including Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid, which was initially developed to treat Covid-19 immediately after a positive test. Another intervention is a web-based brain training program called BrainHQ, which the NIH hopes will help people regain neurological function.
