Conclusion

Antidepressants, as the term is currently understood, were introduced into clinical practice in the late 1950s. The first of these was imipramine, shortly to be followed by amitriptyline and then by a series of related compounds - all chemically ‘tricyclics’. These subsequently became known as the ‘first-generation’ antidepressants; imipramine and amitriptyline in particular have since become the standards against which others have been compared.