Bupropion for Depression in Schizophrenia: A Case Report

Major depressive episodes (MDEs) are common in the course of schizophrenia [1], and antidepressant agents are frequently administered. Bupropion, a dual dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, primarily addresses catecholamine neurotransmission which is of pivotal importance in mood regulation [9]. While bupropion proved to be efficient and safe in the treatment of nicotine dependency in schizophrenic patients [2] [4] and as an antidepressant agent did not show an increased psychotogenic risk compared with other common antidepressants [10], there still have been reports on bupropion-associated psychotic episodes [5] [8] which are held liable for the fact that bupropion is only reluctantly applied in schizophrenia. Here, we describe a schizophrenic patient whose post-psychotic depression was successfully treated with bupropion without worsening the psychotic syndrome.

References

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