Should depression patients use atypical antipsychotic drugs for treatment-resistant depression?

The answer to this question comes from the scientific and psychiatric communities via the results from clinical trials.

More recently, 2 positive, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials investigating the use of adjunctive aripiprazole ( Abilify) in Major Depressive Disorder were published. In the first such study, focused on the use of aripiprazole augmentation for patients resistant ( did not respond) to up to 1-3 retrospective" (historical) antidepressant trials. Patients who made insufficient symptom improvement had either aripiprazole or placebo added to their SSRI or SNRI regimen for a total of 6 weeks. A statistically significant difference in remission rates was also observed, with 26% remission for aripiprazole vs 15% remission for placebo .

This study also reported relatively low rates of discontinuation due to intolerance in the 2 treatment groups (2% for aripiprazole and 1.7% for placebo . The results of separate study of identical design recently presented at a major scientific meeting also demonstrated greater remission rates for adjunctive aripiprazole- than placebo-treated patients.

The results of these 2 trials lead to the approval, by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), of a new treatment indication for aripiprazole as adjunctive treatment to antidepressants for antidepressant-resistant MDD . This was the first-ever approval for an adjunctive treatment in MDD, and the first-ever approval for the use of any medication for TRD by the FDA