Scopolamine augmentation of a newly initiated escitalopram treatment for major depressive disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Jingjing Zhou, Weiwei Wang, Jian Yang, Xuequan Zhu, Lei Feng, Le Xiao, Gang Wang, Jingjing Zhou, Weiwei Wang, Jian Yang, Xuequan Zhu, Lei Feng, Le Xiao, Gang Wang

Abstract

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and disabling disorder that can lead to heavy individual, familial, and societal burdens. Although pharmaceutical interventions still play an essential role in therapeutic measures, limitations, including effects that are delayed for weeks, are noteworthy. Antidepressants with rapid efficacy and acceptable tolerance have been investigated for many years; rapid antidepressant effects and promising clinical applications have been obtained with intravenous and oral scopolamine. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of repeated intramuscular scopolamine as an add-on treatment to escitalopram.

Methods: This is a single-center, saline-controlled, double-blind, three-armed, randomized trial. Sixty-six participants diagnosed with MDD will be recruited at Beijing Anding Hospital and randomly assigned to one of three groups: a high-dose intramuscular scopolamine augmentation group; a low-dose intramuscular scopolamine augmentation group; and a placebo control group. Our primary endpoint is improvement in the 17-Item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17) score from the baseline (at least a 20% reduction). Prespecified secondary endpoints include response rates and remission rates as well as changes in the total or subscale scores between the baseline and week 4.

Discussion: This study will provide the first insight regarding the rapid antidepressant efficacy and tolerability of an intramuscular scopolamine add-on to the usual treatment in Chinese MDD patients. The first discussion concerns whether augmentation can accelerate early antidepressant efficacy. A pilot study of intramuscular scopolamine is performed. The limitations of this study include its small sample size and it being a single-center study, suggesting the need for further confirmation with trials enrolling larger populations.

Ethics and dissemination: The study protocol and all related materials have been approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Beijing Anding Hospital (No. 2016-106, Beijing, China). The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and at national and international conferences.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03131050 . Registered on 18 April 2017.

Keywords: Efficacy; Major depressive disorder; Randomized controlled trial; Scopolamine.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study is approved by the ethics review committee of the Beijing Anding Hospital (No. 2016–106, Beijing, China). All participants are free to withdraw at any time during the study.

All participants will be recruited following an informed consent process involving an approved plain language statement and consent form.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

We have read and understood TRIALS’s policy on declaration of interests and we declare that we have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flow chart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schedule of enrolment, intervention, and assessments (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) diagram)

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Source: PubMed

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