Maprotiline [antikvár]

Mod. Probl. Pharmacopsychiat., vol. 18, pp. 17-48 (Karger, Basel 1982) Maprotiline W. Grüter, W. Pöldinger Kantonale Psychiatrische Klinik, Wil, Switzerland Introduction For more than a decade, treatment for depressive patients with anti-depressant drugs remained largely in the hands of physicians specializing in psychiatry, because the drugs available were still not easy to handlé - either with regard to the differential diagnostic problems involved in their use or with respect to their side-eífects. But, as the number of depressive patients continued to grow (owing partly to a genuine increase in the prevalence of depression and partly to improvements in diagnosis), it became more and more obvious that their treatment could not possibly be left solely to psy-chiatrists. A need thus arose for providing generál practitioners, as well as specialists in branches of medicine other than psychiatry, with a grounding in the diagnosis and treatment of depressive states. At the same time, re-search workers were faced with the challenge of developing drugs which, by virtue of their broad spectrum of activity and their safety and reliability, would enable non-psychiatrists to treat cases of depression without this entailing an unreasonably heavy burden of responsibility for them. Maprotiline, a tetracyclic compound, has gone a considerable way to-wards meeting this demand, and from 15 years experience with maprotiline, documented in somé 600 publications, a clear picture has emerged of this antidepressant, that will be elaborated in the following discussion. Chemistry Maprotiline (^generic name, recognized as 'International Non-proprie-tary Name', WHO; 'United States Adopted Name', USA; 'British Ap-proved Name', Great Britain; 'Dénomination Commune Frangaise', Francé,