IMIPRAMINE THERAPY OF DEPRESSIVE SYNDROMES
LEON REZNIKOFF M.D.1
1 Clinical Director, Hudson County Hospital for Mental Diseases, Secaucus, N. J.
Forty patients suffering from various depressive syndromes had been treated with imipramine hydrochloride for a period of 3 to 12 months.
Remissions and marked improvement had been obtained in 80% of cases.
The effect of the drug is apparent in 2 to 4 weeks after beginning of therapy, and in some cases it is noticeable even after a few days.
Imipramine is effective regardless of long duration of the depression. The relief of depressive feelings is not dramatic and sudden, as with ECT, but rather gradual.
In refractory patients with a tendency to relapse, the drug had been administered in reduced dosage for 12 months, and apparently can be continued indefinitely; this is a distinct advantage over ECT, since ambulatory patients inevitably after a few courses of ECT resist further attempts at maintenance, or preventive ECT.
In none of the 40 patients did imipramine have to be discontinued because of side effects, although several patients complained of dryness of the mouth, profuse perspiration, constipation, dizziness, blurred vision and hot flushes.
