Amitriptyline
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| 3-(10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d] cycloheptene-5-ylidene)-N, N-dimethyl-1-propanamine IUPAC name | |
| CAS number 549-18-8 | ATC code |
| PubChem 2160 | DrugBank APRD00227 |
| Chemical formula | {{{chemical_formula}}} |
| Molecular weight | 277.403 g/mol |
| Bioavailability | 40% |
| Metabolism | Hepatic |
| Elimination half-life | 12-24 hours |
| Excretion | Renal |
| Pregnancy category | C[1] |
| Legal status | |
| Routes of administration | Oral |
Amitriptyline (or Amitryptyline) hydrochloride (sold as Elavil, Tryptanol, Endep, Elatrol, Tryptizol, Trepiline, Laroxyl) is a tricyclic antidepressant drug. It is a white, odorless (but tastes like licorice), crystalline compound which is freely soluble in water; it is usually dispensed in tablet form. In terms of its mechanism of action, amitriptyline inhibits serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake almost equally.
Contents |
[edit] Mechanism of Action
Amitriptyline affects serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake almost equally.
[edit] Uses
[edit] Approved
Amitriptyline is approved for the treatment of endogenous depression and involutional melancholia (depression of late life, which is no longer seen as a disease in its own right),[2] and reactive depression and for depression secondary to alcoholism and schizophrenia. Adult typical dosages are 75 to 200mg daily, with half this initially for elderly or adolescents.
It may also be used to treat nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting). Children between the ages of 7 to 10 years having a dose of 10 to 20 mg, older children 25 to 50mg at night. It should be gradually withdrawn at the end of the course, which overall should be of no more than 3 months.[3]
[edit] Unapproved/Off-Label/Investigational
Amitriptyline may be prescribed for other conditions such insomnia, migraine, rebound headache, chronic pain, postherpetic neuralgia (persistent pain following a shingles attack), fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, interstitial cystitis, irritable bowel syndrome and as a preventative (prophylaxis) for patients with frequent migraines. Typically lower dosages are required for pain modification of 10 to 50mg daily.[3]
[edit] Side effects
Common side effects of using amitriptyline are weight loss or gain, drowsiness, nervousness, and dizziness insomnia. Some rare side effects include tinnitus, hypotension, mania, psychosis, anticholinergic effects, heart block, arrhythmias, extrapyramidal symptoms, depression, and hepatic toxicity.
[edit] Overdose
- Main article: Tricyclic antidepressant
The symptoms and the treatment of an overdose are largely the same as for the other tricyclic antidepressants.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Professional Information Brochure - ELAVIL®
- ↑ Weissman MM. "The myth of involutional melancholia." Journal of the American Medical Association. 1979 Aug 24-31;242(8):742-4. PMID 459064
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 British National Formulary 45 March 2003
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- PubChem Substance Summary: Amitriptyline National Center for Biotechnology Information.
- TREPILINE®-10 TABLETS; TREPILINE®-25 TABLETS South African Electronic Package Inserts. 12 May 1978. Revised February 2004.
- SAROTEN® RETARD 25 mg Capsules; SAROTEN® RETARD 50 mg Capsules South African Electronic Package Inserts. December 1987. Updated May 2000.
[edit] External links
| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Amitriptyline. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
