Plasma levels of tricyclic antidepressant drugs vary considerably between individuals receiving the same amount of drug. The bearing of this variation on the occurrence of subjective side effects was investigated in 40 psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders. Plasma levels were determined before and during four weeks of treatment with nortriptyline 50 mg. three times a day and patients...

Psychotropics (antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, antidepressants, anxiolytics, etc.) are commonly prescribed to treat Huntington's disease (HD). In HD preclinical models, while no psychotropic has convincingly affected huntingtin gene, HD modifying gene, or huntingtin protein expression, psychotropic neuroprotective effects include upregulated huntingtin autophagy (lithium), histone acetylation...

Lithium augmentation, the most studied augmentation strategy for depression, has not been evaluated in patients with a history of non-response to multiple antidepressants. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of lithium augmentation for patients with a history of treatment resistant depression who also failed a prospective trial of nortriptyline. We enrolled 92 subjects with t...

INTRODUCTION Despite many therapeutic options, painful diabetic neuropathy is still a common and challenging complication of diabetes mellitus and is often resistant to treatment with current modalities. METHODS In this randomized, single-blind clinical trial we compared the efficacy of parenteral vitamin B(12) and nortriptyline, for symptomatic improvement of pain, paresthesia, burning, free...

objective: depression is a major health problem, which is not only underrecognized and undertreated, but is also associated with significant morbidity and mortality. it has been suggested that combination therapy rapidly reduces depressive symptoms in patients with moderate to severe depression and is more effective than monotherapy; but this suggestion remains controversial. serotonergic and n...

beta-D-Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) from Escherichia coli was conjugated to desmethylnortriptyline by means of a bifunctional cross-linking reagent, dimethyl adipimidate, and used in a double-antibody immunoassay for nortriptyline. Eighty percent of the enzyme activity was retained after conjugation; 75% of the enzyme was conjugated to desmethylnortriptyline. In the final immunoassay the enzyme ...

In 20 depressed patients treated with nortriptyline (NT) there was a significant relationship between the plasma concentration of NT and the debrisoquine metabolic ratio (rs = 0.77; P less than 0.01). (The debrisoquine test was performed after stopping NT treatment). This is in agreement with the hypothesis that the hydroxylations of NT and debrisoquine are mediated by similar enzymatic mechani...