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Mitigating Delirium With Fluvoxamine Treatment for Non-Cardiac Surgery

Mitigating Delirium With Fluvoxamine Treatment for Non-Cardiac Surgery (MD FluNCS)

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06969287
Acronym
MD FluNCS
Enrollment
46
Registered
2025-05-13
Start date
2026-04-06
Completion date
2028-04-01
Last updated
2026-04-29

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Delirium, Surgery-Complications

Keywords

delirium, geriatric, surgery, fluvoxamine

Brief summary

The investigation will establish biological plausibility and infrastructure required for a multisite clinical trial evaluating the re-purposing of fluvoxamine to mitigate postoperative delirium risk in geriatric patients undergoing non-cardiac non-intracranial surgery.

Detailed description

Delirium is a disturbance in attention, cognition, and consciousness, an acute physiological consequence of medical events, such as hospital admission, surgery, sepsis, and pharmacological intervention. There are currently no standard pharmacologic interventions to prevent delirium in any setting. The investigation will lay the groundwork for a larger-scale Phase 3 trial geared toward advancing long-term goal of improving public health and quality of life for those at risk of postoperative delirium and related sequelae. The study assumes that neuroinflammation is a key contributor to the pathogenesis of postoperative delirium, a matter of conjecture. The investigators will directly test systemic inflammation as a proxy for neuroinflammation. The investigation will test whether fluvoxamine may be associated with reduced systemic inflammation, markers of neural dysfunction, and delirium severity. This potential therapeutic approach has potential generalizability to different clinical settings and already proved useful for COVID-19. The investigators combine the need to develop a collaborative clinical trials platform across diverse healthcare settings with key mechanistic studies that will advance our understanding of the pathogenesis of delirium. These studies will leverage high-density EEG recordings and state-of-the-art plasma biomarker collection, providing key data on the biological plausibility for a fluvoxamine effect.

Interventions

DRUGFluvoxamine

100mg Fluvoxamine Capsule 1. Day of surgery - Study drug to be taken morning of surgery and evening of surgery 2. Post-operative day 1 - Study drug to be taken morning and evening

DRUGPlacebo

Placebo Capsule 1. Day of surgery - Study drug to be taken morning of surgery and evening of surgery 2. Post-operative day 1 - Study drug to be taken morning and evening

Sponsors

Washington University School of Medicine
Lead SponsorOTHER
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
CollaboratorNIH

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

Participants randomized using the randomization model in REDCAP. Study drug/placebo will be provided by an external pharmacy. Study drugs will be numbered and patients allocated to study drug using a randomisation model. Unblinding will only occur when the study finishes or if safety issues require.

Intervention model description

Oral Fluvoxamine 100 mg tablets (immediate release) Study drug (100mg Fluvoxamine tablet or placebo) will be administered at the following times: 1. Day of surgery - Study drug to be taken morning of surgery and evening of surgery 2. Post-operative day 1 - Study drug to be taken morning and evening

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
60 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* English-speaking * elective non-cardiac or non-intracranial surgery requiring at least a 2-day hospital length of stay

Exclusion criteria

* Received investigational drug within the last 7 weeks * lack of capacity to provide informed consent * prior known intolerance or allergy to SSRIs or fluvoxamine * planned postoperative ventilation * drug or alcohol dependence * preoperative use of non-NSAID medications with drug-drug interactions of Class X (Avoid Combination) or D (Consider Therapy Modification) * risk of serotonin syndrome (St John's Wort, SSRIs, or TCA)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Average Monthly participant enrollment rate12- months, duration of the studyFeasibility assessed as number of eligible participants enrolled per month by an audit of the study screening and recruitment logs.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Average Monthly screen failure rate12- months, duration of the studyFeasibility assessed as number of screening failures per month by an audit of the study screening and recruitment logs.
Average Monthly rate of withdrawal12- months, duration of the studyFeasibility assessed as number of withdrawals per month by an audit of the study screening and recruitment logs.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTSarah Knarr
knarr.sarah@wustl.edu3143622415
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORBen Palanca, MD

Washington University School of Medicine

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Apr 30, 2026