A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of SAGE-217 in Participants With Severe Postpartum Depression (PPD)

Phase 3

Completed

Conditions: Depression, Postpartum

Interventions: Drug: Placebo
Drug: SAGE-217

Registration Number: NCT04442503

Lead Sponsor: Biogen

Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to determine if treatment with SAGE-217 reduces depressive symptoms in females with severe postpartum depression (PPD) as compared to placebo.

Detailed Description: This study was previously posted by Sage Therapeutics. In November 2023, sponsorship of the trial was transferred to Biogen.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: Female

Target Recruitment: 200

Inclusion Criteria

Participant has ceased lactating or agrees not to provide breastmilk to her infant(s) from just prior to receiving the investigational product (IP) on Day 1 until 7 days after the last dose of IP.
Participant has had a major depressive episode that began no earlier than the third trimester and no later than the first 4 weeks following delivery, as diagnosed by Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and DSM-5 Clinical Trial Version (SCID-5-CT).
Participant is ≤12 months postpartum at screening and Day 1.

Exclusion Criteria

Participant is at significant risk of suicide or has attempted suicide associated with the current episode of PPD.
Participant has active psychosis per investigator assessment.
Participant has a medical history of nonfebrile seizures.
Participant has a medical history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and/or schizoaffective disorder.
Participant has a history of sleep apnea.

Note: Other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria applied.

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Placebo	Placebo	Participants received SAGE-217 matched-placebo capsules, orally, once daily for 14 days.
SAGE-217 50 mg	SAGE-217	Participants received SAGE-217, 50 mg, capsules, orally, once daily for 14 days.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change From Baseline (CFB) in the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) Total Score at Day 15	Baseline and Day 15	The 17-item HAM-D scale is used to assess the severity of depression. It is comprised of 17 individual items related to the following symptoms: depressed mood (sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless), feelings of guilt, suicide, insomnia (early, middle, late), work and activities (slowness of thought and speech; impaired ability to concentrate; decreased motor activity), retardation, agitation, anxiety (psychic and somatic), somatic symptoms (gastrointestinal and general), genital symptoms, hypochondriasis, loss of weight, and insight. Individual items are scored on either a 3-point (0 to 2) or a 5-point scale (0 to 4), with 0=none/absent and 4=most severe. The total score is the sum of the 17 individual items, ranges from 0 to 52; where a higher score indicates more depression. Negative change from baseline indicates improvement. Mixed Model for Repeated Measures (MMRM) was used for the analysis.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change From Baseline in the 17-item HAM-D Total Score	Baseline, Days 3, 28 and 45	The 17-item HAM-D scale is used to assess the severity of depression. It is comprised of 17 individual items related to the following symptoms: depressed mood (sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless), feelings of guilt, suicide, insomnia (early, middle, late), work and activities (slowness of thought and speech; impaired ability to concentrate; decreased motor activity), retardation, agitation, anxiety (psychic and somatic), somatic symptoms (gastrointestinal and general), genital symptoms, hypochondriasis, loss of weight, and insight. Individual items are scored on either a 3-point (0 to 2) or a 5-point scale (0 to 4), with 0=none/absent and 4=most severe. The total score is the sum of the 17 individual items, ranges from 0 to 52; where a higher score indicates more depression. Negative change from baseline indicates improvement. MMRM was used for the analysis.
Percentage of Participants With HAM-D Response	Days 15 and 45	The 17-item HAM-D scale is used to assess the severity of depression. It is comprised of 17 individual items related to the following symptoms: depressed mood (sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless), feelings of guilt, suicide, insomnia (early, middle, late), work and activities (slowness of thought and speech; impaired ability to concentrate; decreased motor activity), retardation, agitation, anxiety (psychic and somatic), somatic symptoms (gastrointestinal and general), genital symptoms, hypochondriasis, loss of weight, and insight. Individual items are scored on either a 3-point (0 to 2) or a 5-point scale (0 to 4), with 0=none/absent and 4=most severe. The total score is the sum of the 17 individual items, ranges from 0 to 52; where a higher score indicates more depression. Negative change from baseline indicates improvement. HAM-D response was defined as a ≥50% reduction in HAM-D total score from baseline.
Change From Baseline in the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) Total Score	Baseline and Day 15	The MADRS is a 10-item diagnostic questionnaire used to measure the severity of depressive episodes in participants with mood disorders. It includes questions on the following symptoms: apparent sadness; reported sadness; inner tension; reduced sleep; reduced appetite; concentration difficulties; lassitude; inability to feel; pessimistic thoughts; and suicidal thoughts. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 6 (symptoms of maximum severity). The total score ranges from 0 to 60 with a higher score indicating more depression. A negative change from baseline in MADRS total score indicated improvement.
Percentage of Participants With HAM-D Remission	Days 15 and 45	The 17-item HAM-D scale is used to assess the severity of depression. It is comprised of 17 individual items related to the following symptoms: depressed mood (sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless), feelings of guilt, suicide, insomnia (early, middle, late), work and activities (slowness of thought and speech; impaired ability to concentrate; decreased motor activity), retardation, agitation, anxiety (psychic and somatic), somatic symptoms (gastrointestinal and general), genital symptoms, hypochondriasis, loss of weight, and insight. Individual items are scored on either a 3-point (0 to 2) or a 5-point scale (0 to 4), with 0=none/absent and 4=most severe. The total score is the sum of the 17 individual items, ranges from 0 to 52; where a higher score indicates more depression. Negative change from baseline indicates improvement. HAM-D remission was defined as having a HAM-D total score of ≤7.
Change From Baseline in Clinical Global Impressions - Severity Scale (CGI-S) Score	Baseline and Day 15	The CGI-S is a 7-point Likert scale to rate the severity of the participant's illness at the time of assessment, relative to the clinician's past experience with participants who had the same diagnosis. A participant was assessed on severity of mental illness at the time of rating as 1=normal, not at all ill; 2=borderline mentally ill; 3=mildly ill; 4=moderately ill; 5=markedly ill; 6=severely ill; and 7= extremely ill participants. A lower score indicates a better outcome. A negative change from baseline indicates improvement. MMRM was used for the analysis.
Change From Baseline in HAM-D Subscale	Baseline and Day 15	17-item HAM-D scale is used for severity of depression. HAM-D subscales: Core subscale(depressed mood, feelings of guilt, suicide, work and activities, and retardation/20x100; Anxiety subscale\[anxiety(psychic and somatic), somatic symptoms (gastrointestinal and general), hypochondriasis, and insight loss of weight\]/18x100; Bech-6 subscale(depressed mood, feelings of guilt, work and activities, retardation, anxiety psychic, and somatic symptoms general)/22x100; Maier score(depressed mood, feelings of guilt, work and activities, retardation, agitation, and anxiety psychic)/24x100. Each item was scored in range of 0 to 2 or 0 to 4 (0=none to 2 or 4=severe), higher score=more depression. 4 Subscale scores were calculated as sum of individual rating scores related to each subscale, divided by total possible score within subscale, multiplied by 100. Scores were transformed to scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores=more severe depression. Negative CFB=improvement. MMRM was used for analysis.
Percentage of Participants With Clinical Global Impression - Improvement (CGI-I) Response	Day 15	The CGI-I employs a 7-point Likert scale to measure the overall improvement in the participant's condition posttreatment. The investigator rated the participant's total improvement whether or not it is due entirely to drug treatment. Response choices include 1=very much improved, 2=much improved, 3=minimally improved, 4=no change, 5=minimally worse, 6=much worse, and 7=very much worse. The CGI-I was only rated at posttreatment assessments. By definition, all CGI-I assessments are evaluated against baseline conditions. CGI-I response was defined as having a CGI-I score of "very much improved" or "much improved."
Change From Baseline in Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) Total Score	Baseline and Day 15	The 14-item HAM-A was used to rate the severity of symptoms of anxiety. Each 14-items were defined by a series of symptoms, and measured both psychic anxiety (mental agitation and psychological distress) and somatic anxiety (physical complaints related to anxiety). The HAM-A total score was calculated as the sum of the 14 individual item scores. The scoring for HAM-A is calculated by assigning scores of 0 (not present) to 4 (very severe), with a total score range of 0 to 56 where \<17 indicated mild severity, 18 to 24, mild to moderate severity, and 25 to 30, moderate to severe severity. A negative change from baseline in HAM-A total score indicated improvement.
Change From Baseline in Self-Reported Measures of Depressive Symptoms, as Assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) Total Score	Baseline, Days 3, 8,15, 21, 28 and 45	The EPDS is a self-rated depressive symptom severity scale specific to the perinatal period which consists of 10 individual items. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 to 3 points. The EPDS total score is calculated as the sum of the 10 individual item scores, ranging from 0 points to 30 points with a higher score indicating more depression. A negative change indicates improvement.
Change From Baseline in Self-Reported Measures of Depressive Symptoms, as Assessed by the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Score	Baseline, Days 3, 8,15, 21, 28 and 45	The PHQ-9 is a self-rated depressive symptom severity scale to monitor severity over time for newly diagnosed participants or participants in current treatment for depression. Scoring was based on participants responses to 9 specific questions as follows: 0 = not at all; 1 = several days; 2 = more than half the days; and 3 = nearly every day. The score were calculated as the sum of the 9 individual item scores. The PHQ-9 total score was categorized as follows: 1 to 4 = minimal depression, 5 to 9 = mild depression, 10 to 14 = moderate depression, 15 to 19 = moderately severe depression; and 20 to 27 = severe depression. The PHQ-9 total score ranges from 1 to 27 with a higher score indicating more depression. A negative change from baseline indicates reduced depression. MMRM was used for the analysis.
Percentage of Participants With at Least One Treatment-Emergent Adverse Event (TEAE)	Up to Day 45	An Adverse Event (AE) is any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or clinical investigation participant administered a pharmaceutical product and that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with this treatment. An AE can therefore be any unfavorable and unintended sign (including an abnormal laboratory finding), symptom or disease temporally associated with the use of a medicinal (investigational) product whether or not related to the medicinal (investigational) product. A TEAE is defined as an AE with onset after the start of IP, or any worsening of a pre-existing medical condition/AE with onset after the start of IP and throughout the study.

Trial Locations

Locations (3): Sage Investigational Site
🇬🇧
Maidstone, United Kingdom
Sage Investigational SIte
🇺🇸
North Canton, Ohio, United States
Sage Investigational site
🇺🇸
Charleston, South Carolina, United States