TY - JOUR AU - Maier, Franziska AU - Spottke, Annika AU - Bach, Jan-Philipp AU - Bartels, Claudia AU - Bürger, Katharina AU - Dodel, Richard AU - Fellgiebel, Andreas AU - Fliessbach, Klaus AU - Frölich, Lutz AU - Hausner, Lucrezia AU - Hellmich, Martin AU - Klöppel, Stefan AU - Klostermann, Arne AU - Kornhuber, Johannes AU - Laske, Christoph AU - Peters, Oliver AU - Priller, Josef AU - Richter-Schmidinger, Tanja AU - Schneider, Anja AU - Shah-Hosseini, Kija AU - Teipel, Stefan AU - von Arnim, Christine A. F. AU - Wiltfang, Jens AU - Jessen, Frank TI - Bupropion for the Treatment of Apathy in Alzheimer Disease JO - JAMA network open VL - 3 IS - 5 SN - 2574-3805 CY - Chicago, Ill. PB - American Medical Association M1 - DZNE-2020-01242 SP - e206027 PY - 2020 AB - Importance Apathy is a frequent neuropsychiatric symptom in dementia of Alzheimer type and negatively affects the disease course and patients’ and caregivers’ quality of life. Effective treatment options are needed.Objective To examine the efficacy and safety of the dopamine and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor bupropion in the treatment of apathy in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type.Design, Setting, and Participants This 12-week, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial was conducted in a psychiatric and neurological outpatient setting between July 2010 and July 2014 in Germany. Patients with mild-to-moderate dementia of Alzheimer type and clinically relevant apathy were included. Patients with additional clinically relevant depressed mood were excluded. Data analyses were performed between August 2018 and August 2019.Interventions Patients received either bupropion or placebo (150 mg for 4 weeks plus 300 mg for 8 weeks). In case of intolerability of 300 mg, patients continued to receive 150 mg throughout the study.Main Outcomes and Measures Change on the Apathy Evaluation Scale–Clinician Version (AES-C) (score range, 18-72 points) between baseline and week 12 was the primary outcome parameter. Secondary outcome parameters included measures of neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognition, activities of daily living, and quality of life. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks.Results A total of 108 patients (mean [SD] age, 74.8 [5.9] years; 67 men [62 LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:32463470 DO - DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.6027 UR - https://pub.dzne.de/record/151663 ER -