Acute treatment with desipramine stimulates melatonin and 6-sulphatoxy melatonin production in man

Acute administration of the antidepressant drug desipramine (DMI) in man, increased evening melatonin secretion, which reached peak plasma levels 2-4 h earlier than after placebo administration. The increase at set time points 21.00 h-22.00 h was directly proportional to an individual's integrated night-time secretion of melatonin. We have shown that this stimulation was not an effect of DMI inhibition on the hepatic metabolism of melatonin to 6-sulphatoxy melatonin (aMT6s), indeed aMT6s is in itself a good index of the evening melatonin rise. The stimulation of early evening melatonin by DMI might be exploited as a simple pineal function test.