Tricyclic antidepressant

Tricyclic antidepressants are a class of antidepressant drugs first used in the 1960s. Tricyclic antidepressants are not addictive. Although they remain effective, they have been increasingly replaced by SSRIs because the difference between a therapeutic and a toxic dose of a tricyclic antidepressant is small. Like monoamine oxidase inhibitors, this posed a difficulty for the physician in that they were prescribing a medication for a depressed person that could be used to commit suicide.