Befuraline, its safety and efficacy in depressed inpatients

Befuraline, a new antidepressant drug, was studied in twenty-nine inpatients with unipolar endogenous depression. The evaluation of patients' condition was made on four different study periods by two assessors using the HDRS, the Beck depression inventory and von Zerssen depression scale. Befuraline, given in oral doses of between 100 and 300 mg/day improved the HDRS total score and the cognitive disturbances to a significant extent (p less than 0.01) after the first week of the treatment. Eleven patients withdrew from the study most of them as a result of intolerance to the stimulatory properties of the drug, however, the response was considered satisfactory in 12 of the 29 patients (41%) mostly in the "retarded depressed" class. As Befuraline proved to be well tolerated, it was continued on an outpatient basis in 11 patients, confirming the absence of clinically important untoward effects.