Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T11:02:08.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trial of a Sustained Release Form of Amitriptyline in the Treatment of Depressive Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. C. P. Sims
A. C. P. Sims*
Affiliation:
All Saints Hospital, Lodge Road, Birmingham, B18 5SD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Amitriptyline is a widely used antidepressant and its effectiveness has been shown, e.g. in comparison with imipramine in double blind trial (Burt et al., 1962; Hordern et al., 1963, 1964). A disadvantage of currently prescribed tricyclic antidepressants is the necessity for administering the drug three times a day. It has been shown that general medical and in particular psychiatric patients fail to take their medication either in the prescribed dose or at all (Benstead and Theobald, 1952; Haler, 1952; Park and Lipman, 1964; Parkes et al., 1962; Porter, 1969). This failure rate may be as high as 50 per cent (Dixon et al., 1957; Willcox et al., 1965). Even in psychiatric in-patient studies there was still a high failure rate in taking prescribed psychiatric drugs (Hare and Willcox, 1967). A regimen consisting of a single daily dose is more reliably taken than one consisting of thrice daily dosage (Coppen et al., 1969; General Practitioner Clinical Trial 1970).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 120 , Issue 554 , January 1972 , pp. 65 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asberg, M., Cronholm, B., Sjöqvist, F., and Tuck, D. (1970). ‘Correlation of subjective side effects with plasma concentrations of nortriptyline.’ British Medical Journal, iv, 18–21.Google Scholar
Benstead, N., and Theobald, G. W. (1952). ‘Iron and the physiological anaemia of pregnancy.’ British Medical Journal, i, 407–10.Google Scholar
Burt, C. G., Gordon, W. F., Holt, N. F., and Hordern, A. (1962). ‘Amitriptyline in depressive states: a controlled trial.’ Journal of Mental Science, 108, 11–30.Google Scholar
Coppen, A., Bailey, J. E., and White, S. G. (1969). ‘Slow release lithium carbonate.’ Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 9, 160–2.Google Scholar
Dixon, W. M., Stradlino, P., and Wootton, I. D. P. (1957). ‘Outpatient P.A.S. therapy.’ Lancet, ii, 871–2.Google Scholar
General Practitioner Clinical Trial (1970). ‘Dosage schedules in general practice.’ The Practitioner, 204, 719–23.Google Scholar
Haler, D. (1952). ‘The therapeutic response of secondary anaemias to organic and inorganic iron salts.’ British Medical Journal, ii, 2341–3.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1960). ‘A rating scale for depression.’ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 23, 56–62.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H., and Willcox, D. R. C. (1967). ‘Do psychiatric inpatients take their pills?’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 1435.Google Scholar
Hordern, A., Holt, N. F., Burt, C. G., and Gordon, W. F. (1963). ‘Amitriptyline in depressive states: phenomenology and prognostic considerations.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 109, 815–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hordern, A., Burt, C.G., Gordon, W. F., and Holt, N.F. (1964). ‘Amitriptyline in depressive states: six month treatment results.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 641–7.Google Scholar
Park, L. C., and Lipman, R. S. (1964). ‘A comparison of patient dosage deviation reports with pill counts.’ Psychopharmacologica, 6, 299–302.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M., Brown, G. W., and Monck, E. M. (1962). ‘The general practitioner and the schizophrenic patient.’ British Medical Journal, i, 972–6.Google Scholar
Porter, A. M. W. (1969). ‘Drug defaulting in a general practice.’ British Medical Journal, i, 218–22.Google Scholar
Willcox, D. R. C, Gillan, R., and Hare, E. H. (1965). ‘Do psychiatric outpatients take their drugs?’ British Medical Journal, ii, 790–2.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.