Weak antidepressant response after buspirone augmentation of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in refractory severe depression.

Since 1990 open clinical studies and case descriptions reported full or partial antidepressant response after the addition of buspirone to various ongoing antidepressive treatments. Buspirone acts as a partial serotonin agonist at the 5-HT1A receptor. We tried to augment the effect of serotonin-selective re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) with 30 mg buspirone in a series of 10 in-patients suffering from refractory depression. We observed two cases of partial remission and five other cases with minimal improvement but no case with complete recovery following buspirone augmentation. On the basis of our naturalistic drug surveillance in 10 refractory depressives, we cannot recommend 30 mg-buspirone augmentation of SSRI treatment in severely ill depressives.