Discussion
Aripiprazole was shown to be a modestly effective augmentation
therapy for depressive symptoms in bipolar I
and II disorders in this small open-label study. The patients
in this sample did not meet DSM-IV criteria for a
major depressive episode or mania or hypomania but
were on stable maintenance medications with suboptimal
mood symptom control. It is notable that aripiprazole
was able to provide some improvement in this
sample that were nonetheless significantly depressed. In
our overall analysis, augmentation with aripiprazole did
not significantly lower YMRS from week 0 to 8, but this
is most likely due to the low mean YMRS of our patients
at baseline. However, there were four patients with high
YMRS at baseline (mean YMRS 19, range 16 to 22), and
all were improved at week 8 with a mean YMRS of 3
(range of 0 to 4).