Dr Denis Vella Baldacchino, Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Mental Disorders welcomes the introduction on the national Formulary of Bupropion 150 mg modified release tablets as announced in February 2025.  This medicine can be prescribed by Consultant Psychiatrists for patients with Chronic Mood Disorders with major depressive disorder who are obese or smokers or in whom standard first-line antidepressants have been associated with weight gain and/or sexual dysfunction, or in whom augmentation with bupropion in addition to standard first-line antidepressants is warranted. 

This follows other medicines introduced in 2024 including Buprenorphine 8mg Sublingual Tablets. This can be prescribed by Consultant Psychiatrists and Substance Misuse Outpatient Unit Clinicians on an Outpatient and Inpatient use for the treatment of Addiction Disorders. This is reserved for patients currently undergoing opioid maintenance therapy:
•as part of a planned opioid withdrawal, or
•who have low tolerance to methadone with adverse drug reactions recorded on ADRreport. It is important to note that for outpatient patients the Buprenorphine is only available through the Substance Misuse Outpatient Unit (SMOPU) ‘Detox’ whilst it is available at Mount Carmel Hospital for In-patients. 

The list of available medicines now includes the Aripiprazole 1mg/mL oral solution, 5mg tablets and the Aripiprazole 300mg and 400mg  Prolonged Release (depot) injection. These are medicines available for Outpatient and Inpatient use for Schizophrenia as Maintenance treatment of adult patients:
• who are non-compliant with long term oral antipsychotic treatment, AND
• in whom, the first-generation depot antipsychotics or the atypical depot antipsychotics risperidone / paliperidone, are found to be ineffective or have given rise to intolerable side effects especially hyperprolactinemia.
Patients who have never taken Aripiprazole are to be sufficiently stabilised on oral Aripiprazole for at least 14 days prior to and after commencement of this depot formulation.
These medicines can only be dispensed against an official approval from the Medicines Approval Section (permit) and approval is only for 1 year.

Other medicines included in to the formulary are the Olanzapine tablets available in 2.5mg, 5mg and 10mg tablets and Olanzapine Prolonged Release (depot) injection 210mg, 300mg  and 405mg. 

The Commissioner appeals to all involved in administration and procurement process to ensure that Medicines for mental health conditions are processed on the fast track and made available without undue delays.