[Double blind study on maprotiline, an example of a multidimensional psychopharmacologic experiment (author's...

Antidepressive therapy with maprotiline was accompanied by blood level determinations psychological clinical and electroencephalographical assessments. It was the aim of the study to introduce objective methods in psychotropic drug therapy and to look for a relationship between blood level and clinical outcome, EEG and psychological data. We found a "therapeutical window" of blood levels between 300 to 600 ng/ml of maprotiline (oral dose of 75 or 150 mg per day). There is also a relationship between clinical outcome rated by the Hamilton-Depression-Scale and the d2-cancellation-test.