International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health

A placebo-controlled trial of bupropion for improving the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Background: Recently, researches have expressed renewed interest in therapeutic effects of bupropion on the positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenics.

Aim & Objective: In current study, was designed a 12-week double-blind, parallel-groups to examine the comparative efficacy of bupropion compared to placebo for improving the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Methods/Study Design: Eligible participants were 40 patients who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and were randomly assigned to the standard therapeutic dose of bupropion (150 mg/day for the first 3 days, followed by 300 mg/day) administered orally for a total of 8 weeks (n=20) or an identical appearing placebo tablet added to their usual medication regimen (n=20). The study endpoints were the scales of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia by the two scales for the assessment of positive symptoms (SAPS) and negative symptoms (SANS).

Results/Finding: : After the completion of treatment schedules, both groups demonstrated similar significant improvements in all positive symptoms, adjusted for baseline variables. However, it appeared that the avolition-apathy score of negative symptoms was reduced more in the group treated with bupropion compared to the placebo group.

Conclusion: Bupropion has potential efficacy for avolition-apathy as main negative symptoms in schizophrenics who were able to tolerate bupropion and complete 12-week bupropion treatment regimen. However, no change in positive symptoms may be essentially appeared.

Author(s): Dr.Omid.Rezaee, SaeedeMasafiM , Dr.Mohamadreza , Farshad,Akbarpour

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