The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 39 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Buprenorphine Treatment of Refractory Depression
Abstract
Opiates were used to treat major depression until the mid-1950s. The advent of opioids with mixed agonist-antagonist or partial agonist activity, with reduced dependence and abuse liabilities, has made possible the reevaluation of opioids for this indication. This is of potential importance for the population of depressed patients who are unresponsive to or intolerant of conventional antidepressant agents. Ten subjects with treatment-refractory, unipolar, nonpsychotic, major depression were treated with the opioid partial agonist buprenorphine in an open-label study. Three subjects were unable to tolerate more than two doses because of side effects including malaise, nausea, and dysphoria. The remaining seven completed 4 to 6 weeks of treatment and as a group showed clinically striking improvement in both subjective and objective measures of depression. Much of this improvement was observed by the end of 1 week of treatment and persisted throughout the trial. Four subjects achieved complete remission of symptoms by the end of the trial (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores < or = 6), two were moderately improved, and one deteriorated. These findings suggest a possible role for buprenorphine in treating refractory depression.
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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Buprenorphine has antidepressant effects when used for both opioid use disorder and treatment-resistant depression (279-284)”
From A brain-centric model of suicidal behavior (2020) · cites this paper as [279]
In the citing paper
“Overall, six clinical trials [41,42,43,44,45,46]—of which three were randomized, double-blind and placebo controlled studies [41,44,45]—and one clinical case [47], including a total of 216 subjects with TRD treated with BUP in mono-therapy or together with an opioid antagonist (naloxone or samidorphan) were included.”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“Bodkin [42] treated 10 TRD subjects with BUP, according to tolerance and clinical benefits, with a maximum daily dosage of 1.8 mg. After four to six weeks, seven patients showed clinically striking improvements in both subjective and objective measures of depression.”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“Taken together, according to the included studies, BUP has a rapid antidepressant and anti-suicidal action: in fact, this psychoactive compound seems to act in about a week after the first administration [41,42,43,44,46,47,48,52].”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“Bodkin and colleagues [42] and Gerra et al. [50] even reported some cases of irritability, anxiety, and dysphoria, which led to drop-out from the study of implicated patients.”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“Not all the studies included in this review analyzed the occurrence of side effects related to BUP use but, in those who considered their possible emergence [42,43,44,45,46,50,51], specific side-effects were described in the majority of patients.”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“On the other hand, there are also studies [42,47,48,50,51] suggesting that this action is prolonged in time up to one to three months.”
From The Efficacy of Buprenorphine in Major Depression, Treatment-Resistant Depression and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Bodkin, J. A., Zornberg, G. L., Lukas, S. E., & Cole, J. O.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
- Published
- 1995-02
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 49-57
- ISSN
- 0271-0749 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2063621859
- Cited by
- 346
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 3.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA-00115)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology (medical) › Treatment of Major Depression
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
- Keywords
- buprenorphine, treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder, antidepressant treatment, opioid side effects
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Buprenorphine, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
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