The antidepressant bupropion does not improve apathy in patients with Alzheimer’s type dementia, according to clinical trial results from Germany.
Investigators conducted a 12-week double-blind, randomized trial — the largest to study apathy in Alzheimer’s, the researchers claim. Bupropion failed to improve apathy as measured on a standardized scale in 54 participants when compared with a placebo cohort, reported first author Franziska Maier, Ph.D., from University Hospital Cologne.
Established pharmacological treatment of apathy in Alzheimer’s is lacking, Maier and colleagues wrote. Nonpharmacological therapies, such as occupational therapy, therefore remain the first-line recommendations for care, they concluded.
Full findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
