Nature. Mental healthAug 7, 2026

SSRIs and SNRIs and Long COVID in Children and Teens with Mental Health Conditions

Long Covid Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Aug 9, 2026

Abstract

In a cohort of 110,955 children and adolescents, associations were found between SSRI/SNRI use and outcomes related to long COVID.

No association was found between SSRI/SNRI use and clinician-recorded long COVID diagnoses.
Some symptoms, such as fever, chills, and hair loss, were associated with lower risks in users of these medications.
Conversely, higher risks were noted for neurological and systemic symptoms, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, cognitive dysfunction, and fatigue.
These observations suggest antidepressant exposure may influence the pattern of post-COVID symptoms in youth.

Simplified

Long COVID has been an important health concern in children and adolescents, yet factors associated with its development remain incompletely understood. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are widely prescribed for pediatric neuropsychiatric conditions and may influence immune and autonomic pathways involved in postinfectious symptoms. Here we show associations between SSRI/SNRI use and long coronavirus disease (COVID)-related outcomes in a retrospective cohort of 110,955 children and adolescents with pre-existing neuropsychiatric conditions across 37 US health systems participating in the National Institutes of Health Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery consortium. SSRI/SNRI use was not associated with clinician-recorded long COVID diagnosis but showed heterogeneous associations with individual symptoms. Lower risks were observed for some symptoms, including fever, chills and hair loss, whereas higher risks were observed for neurological and systemic outcomes, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, cognitive dysfunction and fatigue. These findings suggest that antidepressant exposure may be associated with differing post-COVID symptom patterns in youth and warrant further investigation.