Lack of efficacy of the substance p (neurokinin1 receptor) antagonist aprepitant in the treatment of major depressive disorder

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Substance P in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Phase III trials were conducted to confirm these findings.

Who Took Part

The study group was 150 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Five 8-week, randomized, double-blind, parallel-groups, placebo-controlled, multicenter trials in outpatients with Major Depressive Disorder were performed.

Approximately 150 patients were enrolled per treatment group in each trial.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter and parallel-group study.

Because people in this Substance P study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Substance P.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Substance P, giving a reference point.

Running at several centres spread the Substance P study over different clinics and patient groups.

The primary end point was the mean change-from-baseline of the first 17 items of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D(17)) score at 8 weeks.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Antidepressive Agents, Aprepitant, Brain, Major Depressive Disorder, Morpholines, Neurokinin-1 Receptor Antagonists and Personality Inventory.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Substance P in 150 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2006 (Biological psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Substance P compound page, all human trials.