Preliminary Evaluation of a New Anti-Depressant, Trimipramine, by a Sequential Method

Abstract

A new drug, trimipramine (Surmontil, 7162 R.P.), has been found to have a specific antidepressant effect (Lambert et al., 1961), and has been used in France for two years; hitherto no controlled trial of trimipramine has been published. This paper reports a three weeks' comparative trial between this drug and imipramine (Tofranil), in the treatment of psychotic depression, using the statistical method of sequential analysis, the actual design used was that at the 5 per cent. chance level (Armitage, 1960).