The use of Parenteral and Oral Chlorimipramine (Anafranil) in the Treatment of Depressive States

Abstract

This paper is an extension of an earlier introductory one (1) and evaluates the results of treatment with parenteral and oral chlorimipramine of 200 patients suffering from depressive states of varying severity. The current research project was started in January 1968, and is still in progress. Further references to the literature may be obtained from the original paper or by application to the author. Fifty-seven of the cases treated were so severely depressed that ECT would normally have been given. All were in-patients and were treated with intravenous infusions of chlorimipramine. The other 143 patients were less severely depressed and were seen as out-patients. They were treated with increasing doses of oral chlorimipramine, but a few cases in both groups also had ECT to expedite recovery. Approximately 50 patients exhibited obsessional features in addition to depression, and their response to treatment was so promising as to merit special mention.

Therapeutic Effect of Maprotiline and Chlorimipramine: Controlled Study

“…Both chlorimipramine (Anafranil®, Ciba-Geigy) and maprotiline (Ludiomil®, Ciba-Geigy) are widely used in Europe [Collins, 1973;Gringas and Beaumont, 1979;Cording-Tommel and von Zerssen, 1982], Their main biochemical effects are also known: inhibition of the uptake of serotonin with chlorimipramine [Goodwin et al, 1979] and of noradrenaline with maprotiline [Maitre et al, 1971;,…”

The assessment of drugs in obsessional states.

“…The trial was uncontrolled and complicated by the use of a technique common in behaviour therapy; namely graded re-exposure. Other similarly planned studies of oral or intravenous clomipramine in obsessional states (Walter, 1973;Beaumont, 1973) or obsessional states in depression (Collins, 1973) used non-standard global ratings, preventing comparison with other studies.…”