Efficacy of bupropion and cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of methamphetamine use disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: We assessed the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy and bupropion compared to cognitive behavioral therapy alone for methamphetamine use disorder. METHODS: The selection criteria for this systematic review study with meta-analysis were randomized clinical trials on the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy and bupropion in the treatment for methamphetamine use disorder (assessed by urine metabolites). The search was conducted in PubMed, PubMed Central, LILACS, SciELO, Cochrane Library, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Ovid Medline, Clinicaltrials.gov, and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The primary outcome was relapse. Risk of bias was assessed with the RoB 2 tool. The results of each clinical trial were input into an Excel spreadsheet. We performed a meta-analysis using relative risk and a 95%CI. RESULTS: Of the 597 initial articles (498 after removing duplicate records), five were included in the meta-analysis, with an aggregate sample of 539 patients. An overall relative risk of 0.91 (95%CI 0.78-1.05) was estimated for relapse. CONCLUSION: Our study limitations included publication bias and heterogeneous populations. We found no evidence that cognitive behavioral therapy and bupropion reduced the risk of relapse compared to cognitive behavioral therapy and placebo.