title: Aripiprazole as augmentation therapy in bipolar patients with current minor or subsyndromal mood symptoms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of aripiprazole augmentation of maintenance treatment for bipolar disorder in patients with minor or subsyndromal mood episodes while on a stable dose of a mood stabiliser and/or antidepressant.
  
  
  METHODS
  All subjects had a diagnosis of bipolar I or II disorder (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th Edition, Text Revision). Open-label aripiprazole was given over 8 weeks initially. The starting dose was 5 to 15 mg/day with a mean final dose of 11.5 mg (±4.6). Patients were assessed at weeks 0, 2, 4 and 8 with the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Seventeen of 20 (85%) patients completed week 4, while 14 (70%) patients completed 8 weeks. For intention-to-treat data, there was a significant decrease in MADRS scores over the course of treatment, with a reduction of 6.40 points at endpoint (p < 0.0005). Improvement from baseline was significant at week 2 and remained through to week 8. Similarly, CGI-S scores significantly decreased over the course of study, but not YMRS scores. Aripiprazole was shown to be a modestly effective augmentation therapy for depressive symptoms in bipolar I and II in this small open-label study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia.
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schweitzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia ; Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, 3122 Australia.
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sarris
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tuckwell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia.
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia.
authors.forename: Deidre
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Melbourne Clinic, 130 Church St, Richmond, 3121 Australia.
authors.forename: Chee
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ng
keywords: Adjunctive; Aripiprazole; Atypical antipsychotics; Augmentation therapy; Bipolar depression; Bipolar disorder