Effect of tricyclic antidepressants on individual symptoms.

Improvements of individual depressive symptoms in patients with depression was compared between those treated with tricyclic antidepressants (TAD) and those treated with other psychoactive drugs or placebo. In the majority of comparisons, patients did not improve significantly more with TAD than with other drugs or placebo. These findings indicated that tricyclic antidepressants are not useful in the treatment of most patients with depression. Despite our findings, it is realized that a minority of patients with depression may benefit by treatment with tricyclic antidepressants.