The results were reported separately for those aged over 60 years, for patients who received bupropion for smoking cessation, and for patients who received it because of a psychiatric diagnosis.
Mean daily doses of sustained-release bupropion at conversion did not differ significantly from mean daily doses of immediate-release bupropion at 6 months after conversion, (p=0.73).
Although four deaths occurred during the study period, they were found to be unrelated to bupropion therapy or the change in dosage form.
Four patients (5.6%) out of 71 under the age of 60 years and 3 patients out of 32 over the age of 60 experienced nonfatal adverse events after conversion. The difference was not statistically significant, (p=0.485, chi-squared test). Patients aged 60 years and older received smaller mean daily doses of immediate-release bupropion at the end of the follow-up period compared with patients younger than 60 years, but the difference in mean doses was not statistically significant (279.7 +/- 91.5 mg versus 303.2 +/- 84.9 mg; p=0.223, Student's t-test).
Compared with patients with psychiatric diagnoses, patients who received bupropion for smoking cessation did not demonstrate a statistically significant adverse event rate (6% versus 8.1%; p=0.810, chi-squared test). The mean daily doses of immediate-release bupropion at the end of the follow-up period also did not vary significantly (300 +/- 75 mg for the smoking-cessation group versus 295 +/- 90 mg for the group with psychiatric diagnoses; p=0.832, Student's t-test).
The most frequent dosage of immediate-release bupropion at the end of the follow-up period was 300 mg/day in each group. Dosages different from 300 mg/day were administered to 4 patients (25%) in the smoking-cessation group and 36 patients (41%) in the group of patients with psychiatric diagnoses.