Plasma levels and effects of nortriptyline in geriatric depressed patients.

Pharmacokinetic, therapeutic effects, and side effects of nortriptyline were studied in geriatric depressed patients treated with a standard dose of 150 mg/day. Plasma levels and elimination half-life of nortriptyline were no different in geriatric patients than younger patients. The antidepressant therapeutic effects of nortriptyline appeared to be similar in geriatric patients as in younger depressed patients. Geriatric patients experienced few subjective side effects of nortriptyline. Overall, the drug produced no clinically significant changes in several parameters of the EKG, and no geriatric patient experienced tachycardia on nortriptyline. Nortriptyline did induce significant orthostatic hypotension in the systolic component, but not in the diastolic component. However, the orthostatic hypotension produced by nortriptyline was not greater in geriatric patients than in younger patients treated with the same dose.