A short course of mifepristone -- better known as the abortion drug RU486 -- leads to significant improvement in patients with major depressive episodes with psychotic features, the findings of a small clinical trial suggest.In many cases, because of the extreme danger of harming themselves, people with psychotic depression have to be hospitalized and undergo electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock therapyPrevious studies have indicated that mifepristone may have rapid antidepressant effects in these circumstances, Dr. George M. Simpson of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues note, but results were clouded by patients taking other drugs simultaneously.To clarify the situation, the researchers studied 20 subjects with psychotic depression who were taking no psychotropic medications. They were given a 6-day course of mifepristone, and followed as hospitalized patients for a total of 8 weeks.Significant improvements in standardized depression scores were seen after 1 week and up to 4 weeks, but not thereafter, according to the report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
