Seroquel upgraded to first-line therapy in CANMAT guidelines

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca says that updated Canadian health care guidelines for the management and treatment of patients suffering from depression now feature its antipsychotic Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) as a first-line single medication for bipolar depression and as a second-line option for the management of bipolar II depression. The agent is currently licensed for the treatment of depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder, in the USA only.

The guidelines were published in the November 30 issue of the journal Bipolar Disorders by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and have been updated to ensure that they include all new data that have become available over the past 12 months, including Seroquel BOLDER data.

"We felt that the data from BOLDER I and BOLDER II were so strong that it merited inclusion of Seroquel as a first-line option for bipolar depression in these guidelines," said Lakshmi Yatham, primary author of the CANMAT Guidelines and professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.