Efficacy and safety of antidepressant augmentation with lamotrigine in patients with treatment-resistant depression: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study.
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ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:This study reports a clinical trial evaluating lamotrigine safety and efficacy as an antidepressant augmentation agent in treatment-resistant depression, therefore adding more empirical evidence to the limited number of studies on the use of lamotrigine. METHOD:A double-blind pilot study was conducted between March 2004 and January 2006 with 34 nonbi-polar, nonpsychotic patients who had DSM-IV major depressive disorder and were resistant to at least 2 anti-depressants. The subjects were taking antidepressant therapy and were randomly assigned to receive placebo or lamotrigine as an adjunct therapy for 8 weeks. They were evaluated on a biweekly basis in order to assess the efficacy and the safety of the drug. Efficacy was measured with the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) scale. Response was defined as a decrease of at least 50% from baseline on the MADRS and a final score ? 2 on the CGI. Safety was assessed by keeping record of treatment-emergent adverse events. RESULTS:The results of the adjunct treatment with lamotrigine did not reveal a significant difference according to the MADRS (p = .45). No differences between the 2 treatment groups were revealed by the repeated-measures analysis of variance or by the analysis based on the CGI (p = .45). More than 50% of the patients had been treated with at least 3 different anti-depressants. The most frequent adverse events were nausea, rash, and dyspepsia in the lamotrigine group and dizziness and headache in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS:In this study, although it was safe, lamotrigine was not found to be an efficient augmentation agent in treatment-resistant depression. Small sample size, higher chronicity, and refractoriness may be related to treatment failure. TRIAL REGISTRATION:clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00652171.
SUBMITTER: Santos MA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2446484 | biostudies-literature | 2008
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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