Symptom reduction in depression after treatment with L‐tryptophan or imipramine

Abstract

Thirty-eight in-patients with endogenous- and 20 in-patients with non-endogenous depression, took part in a multi-centre 3-week double-blind trial where patients were randomly allocated to treatment with either 6 g L-tryptophan or 150 mg imipramine daily. Item analysis of Hamilton ratings, before the investigation and weekly during the trial period demonstrated few statistically different mean scores on individual items between the two treatment groups. After 3 weeks' treatment a statistically significant item mean reduction on the 0.1% level was found in the item Agitation in favour of imipramine-treated, and in the item Work and Activities in favour of L-tryptophan-treated endogenously depressed patients. After 3 weeks' treatment a statistically significant item mean reduction on the 5% level was found in the item Suicide in favour of imipramine-treated non-endogenously depressed patients. The present study has shown that, after 3 weeks' treatment, imipramine and L-tryptophan has decreased the mean score on individual items of HRS in about the same degree.

Evaluation of l-tryptophan for treatment of insomnia: A review

“…Bridges et al (1976) found that ventricular cerebospinal fluid L-tryptophan levels were already significantly higher in agitated compared to nonagitated psychiatric patients, so there is no theoretical justification for administering Ltryptophan to such patients. Accordingly, two clinical studies in depressed patients reported that agitation and anxiety were not significantly reduced by L-tryptophan (Herrington et al 1976;Lindberg et al 1979).…”

Norepinephrine Transporter in Major Depressive Disorder: A PET Study

“…The severity of symptoms for all patients was assessed using the Japanese version of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) on the day of the PET scan (19,20). All participants performed three neuropsychological tests: the Trail Making Test, parts A and B, and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (21,22).…”

Psychiatric assessment in medical long‐term care facilities: Reliability of commonly used rating scales

“…Other studies supporting good reliability properties for the BPRS in different settings are summarized in a review article by Hedlund and Vieweg (1980). For the Hamilton Depression Scale, interrater reliability for the total scale has been shown to range from 0-78 to 0.96 (Bech et al, 1975(Bech et al, , 1979Cicchetti and Prusoff, 1983;Fava et al, 1982;Hamilton, 1960;Hodern et al, 1963;Kneseirch et al, 1977;Lindberg et a/., 1979;Maier and Philip, 1985;Miller, 1980;Rehm and O'Hara, 1985;Ziegler et al, 1978). Further evidence on reliability and other properties of the HDS are found in a review article by Hedlund and Vieweg (1979).…”