Treatment for Bipolar Depression: Acute & Prophylactic Efficacy With Citalopram
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2014-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
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.