Posted by DSCH on October 11, 2003, at 13:42:33
In reply to Re: Francesco! More on Tricyclics! » DSCH, posted by zeugma on October 11, 2003, at 9:09:52
> Hi, sorry to jump into this conversation (and I am a pretty rank beginner when it comes to the subtleties of neurochemistry and such :))
This isn't intended to be private chit-chat between just me and Francesco, anyone is welcome to join in anytime. :-) And I have no formal education in pharmacology, psychopharmacology, or even biology beyond AP high school level. My organic chem is undergrad level and inorganic could be described as a bit beyond undergrad.
>but everything I have read suggests the the rank order for NE vs. 5-HT affinities of tricyclics is desipramine > nortriptyline > imipramine > amitriptyline. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that the tertiary amines are metabolized to noradrenergic secondary amines; this is true of clomipramine, as well, which the impressive new "Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology" describes as possibly the only true serotonergic among the TCA's. (Very likely this is true for fast metabolizers of the tertiary amines; however, there sems to be wide variability in rates of absorption etc.; the secondary amines have a simpler metabolism, which is another big advantage for this latter class.)
>
> See this link for more details:
>
> http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/283/3/1305
>Thanks for bringing this to my attention. The chart where I found the notation "5-HT > NE" for nortriptyline was in "The Psychopharmacology of Herbal Medicine" which leads off the chapter on psychotherapeutic herbs with a discussion of the standard prescription synthetics. Four references are listed for the chart, two I have yet to find in the clumsy bibliography and the other two appear to be textbooks.
Sometime soon I'll peruse the link you provided.
poster:DSCH
thread:260422
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/268364.html