Conditions: Dysthymic Disorder
Keywords: Dysthymic Disorder Dysthymia Depression Chronic Depression Wellbutrin XL
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 18
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This is a ten-week, double-blind study of Wellbutrin XL in outpatients with dysthymic disorder, a form of low-grade chronic depression. We hypothesize that patients taking Wellbutrin XL will show greater improvement in depression symptoms and psychosocial functioning than patients taking placebo.

Detailed description:
This is a ten-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the tolerability, dosing and efficacy of Wellbutrin XL in outpatients who meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV criteria for early onset, primary type dysthymic disorder (low-grade chronic depression). It is hypothesized that patients taking Wellbutrin XL will show greater improvement in depression symptoms and psychosocial functioning than patients taking placebo.

Arms:
arm 1: Treatment with active medication (bupropion XL) dose ranging from 150 to 450 mg/day arm 2: Placebo comparator, matching appearance with active medication, taken from 1 to 3 tablets per day

Interventions: intervention 1: bupropion XL intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Antidepressant medication intervention 2: Placebo

Protocol document: