RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pertofran
JF Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin
JO Drug Ther Bull
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 27
OP 28
DO 10.1136/dtb.1.7.27
VO 1
IS 7
YR 1963
UL http://dtb.bmj.com/content/1/7/27.abstract
AB The antidepressant action of imipramine (Tofranil - Geigy) is probably due not to the direct action of the drug itself, but to one of its metabolites, desmethylimipramine (B. B. Brodie et al., Med. exp. 1961, 5, 454), which has been given the Approved Name desipramine. This substance is now marketed as Pertofran (Geigy). It has been suggested but not proved that imipramine takes several weeks to work because this time-lag is necessary for the active metabolite to accumulate. If this is true, desipramine might be expected to act more quickly than imipramine in the treatment of depressive illness.