The Committee on Safety of Medicines may consider limiting the use of the older and potentially more toxic tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline, unless GPs reduce the number of prescriptions they are handing out for drugs now shown to incr
Despite earlier warnings, British doctors continue to widely prescribe drugs like amitriptyline and related drugs. These drugs have been severely restricted in Germany, and French researchers have linked one of this class of drugs with an increased risk of depression.
The National Poisons Unit at Guy’s Hospital in London showed that the suicide rate with the older antidepressants is 10 times (50 per million prescriptions) that of the new monoamine oxidase inhibitors.