Preclinical data indicate the antidepressant activity of zinc and the involvement of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in this mechanism. The present study investigates the effect of chronic (16 days) combined treatment with zinc (15 mg/kg zinc hydroaspartate) and imipramine (5 mg/kg) in chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) on the BDNF mRNA level in the rat brain. Moreover, serum zinc ...

Endogenous depressives with abnormal dexamethasone suppression tests (DSTs) respond better to somatic antidepressant treatments than those with normal DSTs. Whether the DST also aids in the selection of specific antidepressants has not been determined. A pilot report suggested that patients with abnormal DSTs might be noradrenaline-deficient and respond preferentially to imipramine or desiprami...

The fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) developed by Abbott to diagnose intoxication with tricyclic antidepressants was adapted for therapeutic drug monitoring and validated with chromatograpic methods to investigate its potential for this use. We compared serum concentrations of tricyclic antidepressants in vivo and in vitro obtained by FPIA with those by gas chromatography and HPLC. ...

It has been hypothesized that pro-inflammatory response and hyperactivity of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA) are involved in the pathogenesis of depression. Hyperactivity of HPA axis results probably from deregulation of glucocorticoid receptor function and impairment of the control mechanism of glucocorticoid secretion. Previously, we found that antidepressants inhibited gluco...

A growing body of evidence has suggested that reactive oxygen species (ROS) may play an important role in the physiopathology of depression. Evidence has pointed to the β-carboline harmine as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of depression. The present study we evaluated the effects of acute and chronic administration of harmine (5, 10 and 15 mg/kg) and imipramine (10, 20 and 30 ...

Antidepressant drugs have been shown to reverse some changes evoked by glucocorticoids or stress. In the present study we attempted to find out whether imipramine, one of the most frequently used antidepressant drugs, interfered with glucocorticoids, modulating the production of IFNand IL-10, pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, respectively. We observed a significant inhibitory ef...

Three reliable, rapid and selective methods have been developed and validated for the determination of imipramine and chlordiazepoxide in pharmaceutical dosage forms. The first method is spectrophotometric method includes simultaneous estimation method, first order derivative spectrophotometric method, isoabsorptive method and multiwavelength method. All variables affecting the reaction have be...

This study is part of ongoing work toward developing pharmacological methods for enhancing and inducing ejaculation in stallions with ejaculatory dysfunction or disabilities that interfere with normal breeding behavior. The objective was to evaluate a treatment regimen involving oral imipramine followed by intravenous xylazine that, in uncontrolled field clinical trials, had shown promise for a...

Antidepressant drugs after chronic administration induce adaptive changes in the NMDA receptor complex. Radioligand-receptorbinding studies using [3H]5,7-dichlorokynurenic acid demonstrated a "down-regulation" of the glycine site/NMDA receptor following chronic treatment with antidepressants and electroconvulsive shock. However, binding procedure using this radioligand is time consuming because...

The aim of the present study was to investigate effects of some classical and new antidepressants on functional activity of the glucocorticoid receceptor (GR) induced by low corticosterone concentration in mouse fibroblast cells stably transfected with mouse mammary tumor virus-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase plasmid (LMCAT cells). We found that the transcriptional activity of GR stimulated b...