Premenstrual Disorders

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energetic and elevated in mood, even though their tuberculosis was

not improving. These happier patients led researchers to evaluate

the drug more carefully to find if it had any effect on those suffering

from depression.

Treating depressed patients with iproniazid became prevalent af-

ter a 1957 article stated that research showed its ability to improve

the symptoms of this distressing mental illness. Even though the

drug enjoyed such immediate success, soon after the widespread

use of iproniazid began the fear of side effects caused the manufac-

turer to take it off the market.

Meanwhile, Ronald Kuhn, a leading

researcher in Switzerland, was looking

for a specific drug to fight depression

that would be nonstimulating in its ac-

tion, so that the person would feel bet-

ter but not be specifically energized or

agitated. Kuhn began by studying anti-

histamines. (The antihistamine chlor-

promazine hydrochloride was already

being used to treat schizophrenia.) As a

sedative

chlorpromazine

had a calming effect but only a fair amount of success when treating

depression. It seemed that just calming the patient did not alleviate

the major symptoms of depression.

By the end of 1957, Kuhn announced the discovery of a substance

that would relieve depression. This drug was called imipramine and

was the first of the antidepressants specifically designed to treat

depression without overstimulating the recipient. Once they began

using this drug, patients’ appetites returned and they became more

like themselves. But most important, they experienced no abnormal

elevation of mood; in fact, when nondepressed persons took imipra

mine, they simply became sedated. This meant the drug would have

little chance of becoming addictive.

Norepinephrine and serotonin are two neurotransmitters,

chemicals that carry messages between brain cells. Because the

antidepressant imipramine affected both serotonin and norepi-

sedative

: Something

that has a calming,

soothing effect.