The use of parenteral and oral chlorimipramine (Anafranil) in the treatment of depressive states.

Abstract

This paper is an extension of an earlier introductory one (1) and evaluates the results of treatment with parenteral and oral chlorimipramine of 200 patients suffering from depressive states of varying severity. The current research project was started in January 1968, and is still in progress. Further references to the literature may be obtained from the original paper or by application to the author. Fifty-seven of the cases treated were so severely depressed that ECT would normally have been given. All were in-patients and were treated with intravenous infusions of chlorimipramine. The other 143 patients were less severely depressed and were seen as out-patients. They were treated with increasing doses of oral chlorimipramine, but a few cases in both groups also had ECT to expedite recovery. Approximately 50 patients exhibited obsessional features in addition to depression, and their response to treatment was so promising as to merit special mention.