Melitracen is a tricyclic antidepressant

Tricyclic antidepressant

Tricyclic antidepressants are heterocyclic chemical compounds used primarily as antidepressants. The TCAs were first discovered in the early 1950s and were subsequently introduced later in the decade; they are named after their chemical structure, which contains three rings of atoms...

 (TCA) marketed in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 by Lundbeck

Lundbeck

H. Lundbeck A/S is a Danish international pharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development, production, marketing, and sale of drugs for the treatment of disorders in the central nervous system , including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,...

 and Takeda

Takeda

is a Japanese family name. Throughout the course of the Sengoku period of Japan, the famed Takeda clan of Kai province had many descendant branch families.*Takeda clan is a family in the Aki province*Takeda clan...

, respectively, for the treatment of depression  and anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

. In addition to single drug preparations, it is also available as Deanxit, a combination product containing both melitracen and flupentixol

Flupentixol

Flupentixol , also known as flupenthixol , marketed under brand names such as Depixol and Fluanxol, is a typical antipsychotic drug of the thioxanthene class...

.

The pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 of melitracen has not been properly investigated and is largely unknown, but it is likely to act in a similar manner to other TCAs. Indeed, melitracen is reported to have imipramine

Imipramine

Imipramine , also known as melipramine, is an antidepressant medication, a tricyclic antidepressant of the dibenzazepine group...

 and amitriptyline

Amitriptyline

Amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant . It is the most widely used TCA and has at least equal efficacy against depression as the newer class of SSRIs...

-like effects and efficacy against depression and anxiety, though with improved tolerability

Tolerability

Tolerability is how tolerable in terms of side effects a medication is.As an example, tricyclic antidepressants are very poorly tolerated and often produce severe side effects including sedation, orthostatic hypotension, and anticholinergic effects, whereas the newer antidepressant agomelatine has...

 and a somewhat faster onset of action

Onset of action

Onset of action is the duration of time it takes for a drug's effects to come to prominence upon administration. With oral administration, it typically ranges anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour, depending on the drug in question. Other methods of ingestion such as smoking or injection can...

.