Tricyclic antidepressant
In medicine and pharmacology, tricyclic antidepressants are adrenergic uptake inhibitors that "contain a fused three-ring moiety and are used in the treatment of depression. These drugs block the uptake of norepinephrine and serotonin into axon terminals and may block some subtypes of serotonin, adrenergic, and histamine receptors. However the mechanism of their antidepressant effects is not clear because the therapeutic effects usually take weeks to develop and may reflect compensatory changes in the central nervous system."[1]
Classification
Tertiary amine tricyclics
Older tricyclics include amitriptyline, doxepin, and imipramine have a tertiary-amine side chain block both serotonin and norepinephrine and increase anticholinergic drug toxicity.[2]
Secondary amine tricyclics
Secondary amine tricyclics include desipramine, nortriptyline, and others have less anticholinergic drug toxicity.
References
- ↑ Anonymous (2024), Tricyclic antidepressant (English). Medical Subject Headings. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
- ↑ (2006) “Antidepressant Agents”, Keith Parker; Laurence Brunton; Goodman, Louis Sanford; Lazo, John S.; Gilman, Alfred: Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 11th. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-142280-3.