The pharmacology of mianserin (Org. GB 94) Leviron, a really different antidepressant

The new tetracyclic antidepressant mianserin was clinically shown to be better than placebo and to have less side-effects than the tricyclic antidepressants. It has neither anticholinergic activity nor is it effective in the classical tests of antidepressant activity based on amine re-uptake inhibition. Mianserin shows clear antidepressant activity in tests with muricide rats, in bulbectomised rats and in the acquired immobility test with rats or mice. Mianserin shows effects indicative of anxiolytic activity in several tests, including those using punishment or conflict paradigms. Mianserin is less toxic on the cardiovascular system than the tricyclic antidepressants and on chronic administration to rats and mice does not produce dependence or abstinence.