Blood Concentrations of Amitriptyline-Nortriptyline and Clinical Response in Depressive Patients
In conducting the double-blind controlled study of antidepressant, observations were carried out on the relationship between the therapeutic effect of amitriptyline and blood ATP, NTP concentrations of 17 patients given ATP as the standard drug. The results may briefly summarized as follows. 1. The blood concentration of the ATP-effective group (markedly effective+effective, N=13) was significantly (P<0.01) lower than that of the noneffective group (slightly effective+noneffective, N = 4). There could be seen no significant differences of NTP and ATP+NTP concentrations between two groups. 2. The high blood ATP concentration group (over 26 ng/ml) showed higher tendency (P<0.l) Hamilton and Beck scores than the low concentration group (under 26 ng/ml). 3. There was an inverse correlationship between the improvement rate (the decrease rate of Hamilton score) and the blood ATP concentration (= 1.531, P<0.05) 4. There was observed a mutual relationship in the dosage of ATP, the blood concentrations of ATP, NTP, ATP + NTP. 5. A discussion was made on the relationship of blood ATP, NTP concentration to their therapeutic effect.
