Study Finds Steroids Cut Death Rates For Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients

A major new study has found that steroids can help save the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Researchers analyzed the results of seven international studies and found that treating patients with low doses of hydrocortisone, dexamethasone, or methylprednisolone reduced their risk of death by 20%. Dexamethasone performed the best, reducing deaths in 36% of the 1,282 patients treated in three separate trials. Hydrocortisone was administered to 374 patients in three trials and reduced the chance of death by 31%. Methylprednisolone was only used in a small trial with 47 patients and resulted in a nine percent drop in fatalities.

The findings give doctors a powerful and cheap tool to treat seriously ill patients who are in intensive care units.

"Steroids are a cheap and readily available medication, and our analysis has confirmed that they are effective in reducing deaths amongst the people most severely affected by COVID-19," Jonathan Sterne, a professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at Britain's Bristol University who worked on the analysis, said.

Based on the results of the study, the World Health Organization is strongly recommending that doctors consider steroid treatments for severely ill patients. The WHO cautioned that the steroids should not be given to patients with mild symptoms.

"These results are clear and instantly usable in clinical practice," Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Oxford, told reporters. "Among critically ill patients with COVID-19, low-dose corticosteroids...significantly reduce the risk of death."

Doctors and researchers said they still need to do more testing to determine the optimal dosage and duration of the treatment.

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