Aripiprazole as an augmentor of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depression and anxiety disorder patients

Abstract

More than half of anxiety and depression patients treated with an adequate course of antidepressants fail to fully improve. We retrospectively examined whether treatment-resistant depression and anxiety disorder patients responded to and tolerated augmentation with the atypical antipsychotic, aripiprazole. We report on patients with depression and anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, who had an incomplete response to a variety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and who received augmentation with aripiprazole. The primary outcome measure was the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement (CGI-I). In the intent-to-treat analysis, the mean+/-SD CGI-S was 3.8+/-1.3 at endpoint. Fifty-nine percent of subjects received CGI-I ratings of 1 or 2, 'much improved' or 'very much improved,' in terms of their depression and anxiety symptoms at the end of 12 weeks. Several patients showed an early (weeks 1-5), as well as sustained, response to augmentation with doses of aripiprazole between 15 and 30 mg/day. The results suggest that aripiprazole may be effective as an augmentation for patients with persistent depressive and anxiety disorders despite initial SSRI treatment. Because this is a retrospective case review, further prospective studies are required to confirm these findings.

Treatment strategies for tics in Tourette syndrome

“…With regards to this, aripiprazole has been reported as an effective augmentation strategy for improving therapeutic response to SSRIs in patients with major depressive disorders or anxiety disorders, including OCD [Curtis and Richards, 2007;Worthington et al 2005].…”

An Open-Label, Rater-Blinded, Augmentation Study of Aripiprazole in Treatment-Resistant Depression

“…30 It also appears to have a favorable side effect profile. 29 While unpublished data indicate that aripiprazole may hold promise in depression, [31][32][33] to date there are no published studies evaluating aripiprazole as an augmenting agent for TRD.…”

Aripiprazole augmentation of clomipramine therapy in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: case series

“…It has also partial agonistic activity on 5-HT1A receptors, and antagonistic activity on 5-HT2A receptors (13). Aripiprazole has antidepressant effects as well as its effectiveness in different psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders (21). In OCD pathogenesis, dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways play important roles, and it is considered that an imbalance between these pathways cause the disorder (16,22).…”