Imipramine and 5HT re-uptake inhibition: a narrative.

In 1960, the first paper on the pharmacology of imipramine, the 'original' antidepressive drug, was published in the British Journal of Pharmacology (Marshall et al. , 1960). It came from the Department of Clinical Research of the Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries, Scotland and not as might have been expected from a university department or the laboratories of a pharmaceutical firm.

On the pharmacology and biochemistry of the amine-uptake mechanism in human blood platelets.

1. The uptake of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) by human blood platelets in vitro has been studied with the object of identifying the biochemical mechanisms involved.2.

The effect of iproniazid and imipramine on the blood platelet 5-hydroxytrptamine level in man.

Observations are reported on the blood platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine content of six patients receiving imipramine, N-(gamma-dimethylaminopropyl)-iminodibenzyl hydrochloride. The response was a fall to a level of one-sixth of the original in three weeks, with little change thereafter. This is in sharp contrast to the action of iproniazid which caused a rise of some 200% in the blood platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine level over the same period.

The effect of diisopropyl fluorophosphonate on the sensitivity of rats to centrally acting drugs.

The effect of a previous injection of an anticholinesterase, dyflos, on the sensitivity of rats to two centrally acting drugs, pentobarbitone and leptazol, has been measured. The sensitivity was determined at 12 and 35 days after birth and in full-grown animals. Though the dose of dyflos was of the order of two-thirds of the LD50, it did not affect the sensitivity of the young animals to sodium pentobarbitone and leptazol administered 20 hours later.