Finasteride in Hospitalized Adult Males with COVID-19: A Risk Factor for Severity or an Adjunct Treatment - A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

The randomized controlled clinical trial conducted by Zarehoseinzade E, Allami A, Ahmadi M, Bijani B, Mohammadi N in 2020 involved 80 hospitalized male patients aged 50 years and above diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia. The patients were divided into two groups, with one group receiving routine drug therapy and 5 mg finasteride daily for 7 days. The study found a significant difference in O2 saturation between the two groups on the fifth day (p= 0.018). However, there were no significant differences in mortality rate (2.5% vs 10%; p= 0.166) and length of hospital stay (p= 0.866) between the finasteride and the control group. The conclusion was that a short course of finasteride administration partially improves O2 saturation but does not influence other outcomes in hospitalized male patients aged 50 years and above with COVID-19 pneumonia. Further research with a larger scale and longer follow-up is needed to clarify the role of finasteride in this setting.