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The British Journal of Psychiatry 137: 433-439 (1980)
© 1980 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

The peripheral anticholinergic activity of tricyclic antidepressants: comparison of amitriptyline and desipramine in human volunteers

E Szabadi, P Gaszner and CM Bradshaw

The effects of three single oral doses (25 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg) of amitriptyline and desipramine, and of placebo, were compared on a range of cholinergic functions (resting pupil diameter, pilocarpine-evoked miosis, baseline-sweating, carbachol-evoked sweating, salivation, heart rate) in eight healthy volunteers. Three measures (pilocarpine-evoked miosis, carbachol-evoked sweating and salivation) reflected the antimuscarinic property of the antidepressants; in two tests (pilocarpine-evoked miosis and salivation) amitriptyline appeared to be more potent than desipramine. Resting pupil diameter was not affected by amitriptyline, whereas desipramine caused mydriasis, indicating that pupil size is not a reliable measure of anticholinergic activity in the case of drugs which also affect adrenergic mechanisms. Baseline- sweating and heart rate were not affected by the antidepressants.


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N. Coupland, S. Wilson, and D. Nutt
Antidepressant drugs and the cardiovascular system: a comparison of tricylics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and their relevance for the treatment of psychiatric patients with cardiovascular problems
J Psychopharmacol, January 1, 1997; 11(1): 83 - 92.
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Copyright © 1980 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.