3,000 Long-COVID sufferers learn about new nicotine patch therapy - eviltoast
Nikotinpflaster-Therapie bei Long-Covid - Mechanismen, Zusammenhänge und Praxisanwendung
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Weltweit sind etwa 400 Millionen Menschen an Long-COVID erkrankt.  Der Mediziner (Helios Klinik Leisnig) und Wissenschaftler (Universität Leipzig) Dr. med. Marco Leitzke hat im März 2025 seine Studienergebnisse gemeinsam mit seiner Forschungsgruppe der Klinik und Poliklinik für Nuklearmedizin (Leitung: Prof. Dr. Osama Sabri) am Universitätsklinikum Leipzig veröffentlicht. Im Fokus seiner Forschung stehen dabei insbesondere die schwerwiegenden Verläufe und langanhaltenden Symptome von Long-COVID. Dabei konnte beobachtet werden, dass die Anwendung von Nikotinpflastern die Symptome von Long-COVID lindern und heilen kann. Die Behandlungserfolge reichen von der sofortigen und erheblichen Linderung bis hin zur dauerhaften, stufenweisen Abschwächung der Symptome. Die Informationsveranstaltung am Helios Park-Klinikum Leipzig und Herzzentrum Leipzig richtet sich an Betroffene, Angehörige, Hausärzt:innen und Interessierte. Dr. Leitzke erklärt die Mechanismen und Zusammenhänger der Long-COVID-Erkrankung und gibt Informationen zur Praxisanwendung der Nikotinpflastertherapie. Im Anschluss an seinen Vortrag steht er im Rahmen der Diskussion für Fragen zur Verfügung. Die Veranstaltung ist kostenfrei. Eine vorherige Anmeldung ist zur Planung der Kapazitäten notwendig.
  • Lumidaub@feddit.orgEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    Ah shit, 2 hour lecture video. Let’s see if I can make it through that over the next days.

    • Novi Sad@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      Tl;dr: Recommended dosage for people without prior nicotine use is 7 or 7.5mg per day, apparently. However, in another study, two patients administered 15mg per day and also got very good results (but with some transient side-effects).

      In the study in question, they first give a case report on page 13:

      “Continuous LDTN therapy (7 mg/24 h) was administered for 7 consecutive days (days 2–8)” to a female patient.

      There is also this similar paper from 2023 by the same authors. In the section “Methods”, they likewise report giving their patients dosages of 7.5mg per day. As they explain, they choose this low dosage because their patients were all “nicotine-naive”, which I understand as a hint that in cases of (former) smokers, they might give a higher dosage.

      Of one patient (41-year-old male, Case 3), they write that he mistakenly administered a higher dosage of 15mg/day, which he had to cease after 10 hours because of nausea. Yet, despite this (or maybe because of this?), this patient experienced a far-reaching recovery from the Long Covid symptoms over the following days.

      Of another patient (52-year old male, Case 4), they write:

      The nicotine-naïve and otherwise healthy patient agreed to a therapy trial using a nicotine patch (7.5 mg/24 h). Without consultation and contrary to our recommendations, the patient increased the nicotine dose to 15 mg/24 h on the third day of therapy; he then stopped the application completely on the fourth day after nearly complete symptom remission. He stated that he had not experienced any side effects of the nicotine application, which is why he doubted the efficacy and therefore applied two nicotine patches at 7.5 mg/24 h each starting on day three. … In an interview three months after the intervention, the patient confirmed that he had not noticed any recurrence of the symptoms that had brought about his initial consultation.

      Further up, somewhere in the introduction, they write something which makes it seem like that higher doses of nicotine are in principle safe and well-tolerated up until quite a large dosage, at least for patients with different diseases. (The mileage of Long Covid or ME/CFS sufferers could of course vary heavily here.):

      Spoiler

      Apart from the prescription of transcutaneous nicotine application as a substitute for weaning smokers, the transcutaneous application of this substance has been investigated in clinical trials evaluating its therapeutic effects on neurologic or gastrointestinal disorders in non-smoking patients; these investigations showed no substantial side effects (Newhouse et al. 2012; Sandborn 1997; Pullan et al. 1994). Using very high dosages of nicotine (up to 107 mg/day), however, led nearly every patient with more than 90 mg/day to present with frequent nausea and vomiting (Villafane et al. 2007). Nonetheless, all individuals in a trial investigating the ameliorative effects of nicotine on Parkinson’s disease (PD) showed improved motor scores under reduced dopaminergic treatment (Villafane et al. 2007). In contrast to the well-known addictive potential linked to the chronic inhalation of nicotine, none of the trials could show a nicotine dependency after the withdrawal of transcutaneous nicotine application at the end of the investigations (Newhouse et al. 2012; Sandborn 1997; Pullan et al. 1994; Villafane et al. 2007).

      These are all relevant occurrences of “mg” in these two papers.

      Of note, all their patients administered the full dosage immediately from the first hour.