Treatment for Bipolar Depression: Acute & Prophylactic Efficacy With Citalopram

Summary

Bipolar depression is one of the least studied depressive illnesses. The standard practice for many doctors is to use antidepressant medicines, but there are few studies on the long-term results of these medicines. The goal of this study is to look at how effective and safe these medicines are in treating bipolar depression when taken with a mood stabilizer medicine. The drug being studied is citalopram, also known as Celexa. Celexa is FDA approved for the treatment of major depression, but is not FDA approved for the treatment of bipolar depression. It is, however, standard practice for many doctors is to use antidepressants, like Celexa, to treat their patients with bipolar disorder depression. The drug will be studied in three ways. We will see if it helps treat depressive symptoms. We will see how the drug affects the brain using PET and fMRI scans. Finally, we will look at the possibility that there may be a gene that could predict if a person would get better taking the drug using genetics.

Timeline

Start

2007-11

Primary completion

2014-07

Completion

2014-07

Publications

• Ghaemi SN, Whitham EA, Vohringer PA, Barroilhet SA, Amerio A, Sverdlov O, Patkar AA. Citalopram for Acute and Preventive Efficacy in Bipolar Depression (CAPE-BD): A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. J Clin Psychiatry. 2021 Jan 12;82(1):19m13136. doi: 10.4088/JCP.19m13136.

Drugs

Indications