Neurotropic drugs as co-medication to psychotropics. Combined administration of a neurotropic drug and a tetracyclic antidepressant.

Interactions of EMD 21 657 - a neurotropic drug - and maprotiline were studied in 40 depressive outpatients. Patients were assigned at random to an experimental or a control group. 20 patients of the experimental group received EMD 21 657 (3 X 400 mg/day p.o.) in addition to maprotiline (75 mg/day p.o.) during an initial treatment of 10 days. 20 patients of the control group were treated during this period with maprotiline of the same dosage but did not received EMD 21 657 as co-medication. During the 10-day period of treatment and observation, subjective information on the first day of improvement of depressive symptoms and severity of side effects were recorded. Under supplementary treatment with EMD 21 657 the onset of antidepressant action occurred sooner than in the control group receiving maprotiline alone. The earlier improvement in the experimental group was statistically significant in the target symptom 'obsessive rumination' (p less than 0.01). Undesirable effects of maprotiline treatment were seldom observed or were mild in terms of severity. A decrease in the rate of side effects in the experimental group could not be shown statistically.