LAUSR

On 1 May 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorisation for remdesivir in the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients (Food and Drug Administration, 2020). Remdesivir is a nucleotide analogue antiviral drug. It is an investigational drug against COVID-19 and to date there is relatively little known about remdesivir from human trials. Experience from previous viral pandemics suggests that the immunological response to viruses themselves has the potential to cause neuropsychiatric manifestations including encephalopathies and psychosis (Troyer et al. 2020). It is too early in the course of the current COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate such associations for COVID-19 (Bilbul et al. 2020). Antiviral drugs, such as those used in the treatment of human immunodeficiency viruses, have been associated with effects on the central nervous system; neuropsychiatric manifestations include mania and psychoses (Abers et al.2014). Little is known, however, about the potential neuropsychiatric adverse effects of remdesivir.We conducted a PubMed search to elicit any early reports of such effects.