---
title: "Retraction notice: Aripiprazole and bupropion augmentation/switching review in treatment‑resistant"
id: "plos-one-18-retraction-efficacy-and-safety-of-aripiprazole-or-bupropion-augmentation-and"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-18-retraction-efficacy-and-safety-of-aripiprazole-or-bupropion-augmentation-and"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "General"
source_name: "PLOS ONE (Medicine)"
source_url: "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357331"
published_at: "2026-09-01T14:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Journal Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# Retraction notice: Aripiprazole and bupropion augmentation/switching review in treatment‑resistant
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-18-retraction-efficacy-and-safety-of-aripiprazole-or-bupropion-augmentation-and
- **Specialty:** [General](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/general.md)
- **Primary Source:** PLOS ONE (Medicine)
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357331)
- **Published At:** 2026-09-01T14:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Journal Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- This PLOS One notice retracts a 2024 systematic review and **meta-analysis** on aripiprazole or bupropion augmentation or switching for **treatment‑resistant depression** and major depressive disorder because of methodological concerns. - Three of the five included publications represented the same underlying trial cohort of 1,522 patients, violating the assumption of independence required for meta-analysis pooling. - PLOS independently confirmed that the three publications reported different outcome sets from the same VAST‑D trial: the primary 12‑week acute outcomes, a cost‑effectiveness analysis, and a 24‑week continuation‑phase follow‑up. - One of those three publications also appeared not to meet the review authors’ stated inclusion criteria, according to the notice. - Treating multiple reports from a single trial as separate studies likely inflated the apparent number of independent studies, gave disproportionate weight to a single patient cohort, and could make pooled estimates appear more precise than warranted. - The PLOS One Editors sought advice from a Statistical Advisor with expertise in systematic reviews and meta‑analyses and concluded the concerns were valid. - The authors did not respond to editorial inquiries; all authors either did not respond directly or could not be reached. - As a result of the concerns that call into question the validity of the published results and conclusions, the Editors retracted the article. - References in the notice identify the retracted article and the three related publications from the VAST‑D trial (JAMA 2017; J Clin Psychiatry 2018; Depress Anxiety 2021).
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Retraction: Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole or bupropion augmentation and switching in patients with treatment-resistant depression or major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials | PLOS One Browse Subject Areas ? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here . Article Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments Following the publication of this article [ 1 ], concerns were raised about the methodology. Specifically, three [ 2 – 4 ] of the five studies in the systematic review and meta-analysis include the same 1,522 patients with major depressive disorder, violating the assumption of independence. PLOS independently confirmed that [ 2 ] is the main outcome study and presents data from the initial 12-week acute treatment period (the primary outcomes), [ 3 ] focuses on a different set of outcomes, measuring cost-effectiveness in the same patient group, and [ 4 ] focuses on the 24-week follow-up period after the acute treatment phase (secondary and exploratory outcomes). Furthermore, [ 3 ] appears not to have met the inclusion criteria set by the authors [ 1 ]. Treating three publications from the same underlying trial as three separate studies in the analysis inflates the number of independent studies behind the pooled result. This is especially relevant given that only five total studies were included. As a result, this may make the findings look more precise than they are and may give the shared patient cohort disproportionate weight in the pooled estimate compared with the two other studies. The authors did not respond to editorial requests for comment on these concerns. The PLOS One Editors sought advice from a Statistical Advisor with expertise in systematic reviews and meta-analyses regarding the concerns outlined above. They concluded that the concerns are valid. In light of the above concerns that question the validity of the published results and conclusions in [ 1 ], the PLOS One Editors retract this article. All authors either did not respond directly or could not be reached. References 1. Ji M, Feng J, Liu G. RETRACTED: Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole or bupropion augmentation and switching in patients with treatment-resistant depression or major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS One. 2024;19(4):e0299020. pmid:38669232 View Article PubMed/NCBI Google Scholar 2. Mohamed S, Johnson GR, Chen P, Hicks PB, Davis LL, Yoon J, et al. Effect of Antidepressant Switching vs Augmentation on Remission Among Patients with Major Depressive Disorder Unresponsive to Antidepressant Treatment: The VAST-D Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2017;318(2):132–45. pmid:28697253 View Article PubMed/NCBI Google Scholar 3. Yoon J, Zisook S, Park A, Johnson GR, Scrymgeour A, Mohamed S. Comparing Cost-Effectiveness of Aripiprazole Augmentation with Other “Next-Step” Depression Treatment Strategies: A Randomized Clinical Trial. J Clin Psychiatry. 2018;80(1):18m12294. pmid:30695291 View Article PubMed/NCBI Google Scholar 4. Zisook S, Johnson GR, Hicks P, Chen P, Beresford T, Michalets JP, et al. Continuation phase treatment outcomes for switching, combining, or augmenting strategies for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder: A VAST-D report. Depress Anxiety. 2021;38(2):185–95. pmid:33225492 View Article PubMed/NCBI Google Scholar Citation: The PLOS One Editors (2026) Retraction: Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole or bupropion augmentation and switching in patients with treatment-resistant depression or major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS One 21(9): e0357331. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357331 Published: September 1, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 The PLOS One Editors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Download PDF Citation XML Print Share Reddit Facebook LinkedIn Mendeley Bluesky Email Related PLOS Articles RETRACTION pertains to RETRACTED: Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole or bupropion augmentation and switching in patients with treatment-resistant depression or major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials View Page PDF Advertisement
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