Interaction between antidepressants and perphenazine in psychiatric inpatients

Abstract

In a study of 99 patients receiving amitriptyline or nortriptyline alone and 60 patients receiving 1 of these antidepressants in combination with perphenazine, the patients receiving the combination medication had up to 70% higher antidepressant plasma levels than patients receiving the antidepressant alone. The groups did not differ significantly in sex, age, smoking behavior or antidepressant dose level. Due to the possibility of side effects from such a combination of medication, depressed patients not responding to the tertiary amine tricyclic antidepressants evidently receive a trial of high doses of the drugs before antidepressant-neuroleptic combinations are administered.