Clinical Trial: Effects of Bupropion in Depression

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional

Official Title: Effects of Bupropion in Depression

Brief Summary: This study will investigate the role of dopaminergic neural systems in the symptoms and treatment of depression. 40 patients who meet DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of depression will be compared to a matched sample of healthy controls. The depressed group will receive open label treatment with Bupropion MR (150mg bd) for 6 weeks. The control group will receive no treatment. All participants will be assessed before treatment, after 2 weeks treatment and at 6 weeks treatment. The outcomes assessed will be 1) fMRI estimates of neural response to reward to emotionally valenced stimuli (1st and 2nd assessments), 2) computer based measures of emotional processing (all assessments) and 3) standardised questionnaire measures of depressive symptoms (all assessments). The primary study hypothesis is that altering central dopamine using Bupropion will lead to altered neural responses to rewarding stimuli in the depressed patients (i.e. comparing fMRI outcomes between assessment visits 1 and 2). A secondary hypothesis is that this neural change will predict subsequent symptom response to the bupropion (i.e. comparing symptom scores between assessment visits 1 and 3), Lastly, the study will test the hypothesis that baseline differences in reward circuitry will be particularly associated with symptoms of anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure).

Detailed Summary:
Sponsor: University of Oxford

Current Primary Outcome: Change in haemodynamic (i.e. BOLD signal) response [ Time Frame: Baseline and 2 weeks ]

fMRI data collected during a reward and emotional coding task


Original Primary Outcome: Same as current

Current Secondary Outcome:

  • Change in questionnaire measures of subject mood and anhedonia [ Time Frame: baseline, 2 and 6 weeks ]
    Standardised questionnaire measures of depressive symptoms and anhedonia.
  • Change in accuracy and reaction time [ Time Frame: baseline, 2 and 6 weeks ]
    Behavioral responses during computer based tasks measures cognition


Original Secondary Outcome: Same as current

Information By: University of Oxford

Dates:
Date Received: March 24, 2014
Date Started: January 2014
Date Completion:
Last Updated: May 10, 2016
Last Verified: May 2016