Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To investigate the efficacy of agomelatine combined with mood stabilizer in the treatment of bipolar depression.Methods A total of 86 patients with bipolar depression who were treated in our hospital from September 2019 to November 2020 were recruited.Pateints were distributed into two groups, the "treatment group" and the "control group" according to the random number method. The treatment group was treated with lithium sustained-release tablets combined with agomelatine, and the control group was treated with lithium only，and follow up for 12 weeks.Results The outcome of treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05); the reduction rate of HAMD-17 of treatment group was higher than that of control group at the visit of 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks (p＜0.01).The remission rate of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (100%/11.3%) at the 8th week of treatment.There were significant differences of the PSQI scores between the two groups in each visit . Though the levels of ALT and AST in the peripheral blood of patients ofthe treatment group was different at different follow-up periods(p<0.01)the mean value of each visit period was still in the normal range (＜40U/L). Conclusion Agomelatine combined with mood stabilizer (lithium carbonate) in the treatment of bipolar depression can quickly relieve depressive symptoms, improve sleep.We didn’t find specific hepatic dysfunction while conbiend with Agomelatine.This new medication strategy may optimize treatment of bipolar depression in the future.

Agomelatine; lithium carbonate sustained-release tablets; bipolar depression; sleep; safety