DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this pilot clinical trial was to determine the safety of bupropion for methamphetamine abuse/dependence among adolescents. Nineteen adolescents were randomly assigned to bupropion sustained release 150mg twice daily or placebo for 8 weeks in addition to outpatient substance abuse counseling.
OUTCOMES: Bupropion was well-tolerated except for one female in the bupropion group who was hospitalized for suicidal ideation during a methamphetamine relapse. Those participants who received bupropion and females in the study provided significantly fewer methamphetamine-free urine tests compared to participants receiving placebo and males respectively. Results do not support the feasibility of additional trials of bupropion for adolescent methamphetamine abuse/dependence. Future studies should investigate the influence of gender on adolescent methamphetamine abuse and treatment outcomes. This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse grant number R21 DA026513.
A publication has been released using data gathered from this study:
1. Heinzerling KG, Gadzhyan J, van Oudheusden H, Rodriguez F, McCracken J, Shoptaw S. Pilot randomized trial of bupropion for adolescent methamphetamine abuse/dependence. J Adolesc Health. 2013 Apr;52(4):502-5.