Imipramine

At Imipramine it is a tricyclic antidepressant. The active ingredient belongs to the class of dibenzazepines.

What is imipramine?

Imipramine is an antidepressant that was one of the first reliable drugs of its kind. The drug was used as a precursor for a variety of other active ingredients for the therapy of depression.

Imipramine was developed by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Geigy, now known as Novartis. The psychotropic drug, which belongs to the tricyclic antidepressants, came onto the market in 1958. However, its discovery as an antidepressant came about by accident.

The drug was originally supposed to be administered in 1957 by the psychiatrist Roland Kuhn (1912-2005) for the treatment of schizophrenia. When the agent was tested in practice, however, imipramine was found to be unsuitable for this purpose. Instead, there was a positive effect against depression, so that imipramine could be used against this mental illness.

Pharmacological effect

In the human brain, nerve cells communicate with the help of so-called neurotransmitters, which are chemical messengers. The neurotransmitters are released from a nerve cell. The adjacent nerve cell can recognize this via special docking points called receptors and absorb the messenger substance, which then returns to its original cell. Some messenger substances fulfill special tasks and either have an inhibiting or exciting effect. The messenger substance serotonin, for example, serves as a happiness hormone.

It has not yet been possible to precisely determine what causes depression. One theory suggests that it is caused by a lack of special messenger substances. There is a lack of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine or norepinephrine. If these messenger substances are supplied to the patient through medication, this can bring about relief from depressive symptoms.

Imipramine is one of these drugs. It has the ability to increase the concentration of messenger substances such as noradrenaline and serotonin in the body. The substance ensures that the neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the nerve cell. Imipramine also has a positive effect on other messenger substances.

Imipramine is one of the driveless antidepressants, so that the drive of the patient is neither increased nor weakened. There is also no calming effect. In this respect, there is a difference from the antidepressants of the desipramine type, which have a drive-increasing or calming effect.

After taking imipramine, the active ingredient enters the blood through the intestines. There is extensive breakdown of the substance in the liver. The agent is excreted through the kidneys and urine. After only half a day, the body only contains 50 percent of the imipramine. During the breakdown, a conversion to desipramine takes place, which has a drive-increasing effect.

Medical application & use

Imipramine is used to treat depression. The product is also suitable for treating pain caused by a psychological component. This can be mild, moderate, or severe pain.

Other indications for imipramine include anxiety at night (pavor nocturnus) and bed-wetting in children older than five years. Apart from the approved areas of use, the active ingredient is also administered against phobias or anxiety.

A longer period of time is usually required for effective treatment of depression with imipramine. The doctor must regularly check whether the use of the preparation still makes sense. Imipramine is taken with tablets regardless of meals. The recommended starting dose is 25 milligrams of imipramine per day and is increased over the course of the day until it reaches the usual amount of 50 to 150 milligrams. The two receipts take place in the morning and in the evening. The dose should be gradually reduced towards the end of therapy.

You can find your medication here

Risks & side effects

As with the use of other antidepressants, undesirable side effects are also possible when taking imipramine. Every tenth patient suffers from a blocked nose, dizziness or tremors. Sweating, drowsiness, dry mouth, constipation, hot flashes, weight gain and rapid heartbeat.

In addition, it is not uncommon for blood pressure to be too low after getting up. Other side effects can include sleep problems, difficulty urinating, confusion, restlessness, tiredness, thirst, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, skin reactions, abnormal sensations or sexual impairment.

Most of the side effects are most severe when you start taking imipramine. However, once the organism has got used to the drug, the symptoms usually subside.

Imipramine should not be used in case of hypersensitivity to tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants. The same applies to the simultaneous administration of MAO inhibitors. Imipramine is also not allowed in the case of poisoning from psychotropic drugs, sleeping pills, painkillers or alcohol. In addition, in the case of delirium, acute urinary retention, glaucoma, pyloric stenosis, intestinal obstruction or enlargement of the prostate with the formation of residual urine, the active ingredient must be avoided.

Furthermore, interactions between imipramine and active ingredients that have a depressant effect on the brain are possible. These can be sleeping pills or sedatives, which, like alcohol, increase the effects of imipramine. Particular caution is also required when taking other antidepressants at the same time, which applies primarily to the serotonin reuptake inhibitors fluvoxamine and fluoxetine. This increases the frequency of side effects.