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The Food and Drug Administration and drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis are telling physicians about changes to the prescribing and warnings sections of the packaging for Norpramin, a drug for the treatment of depression.

The new safety information cautions doctors to use extreme caution when using the drug in patients with a family history of sudden death, cardiac dysrhythmias, and cardiac conduction disturbances. It also warns about seizures that may come before deadly cardiac dysrhythmias in some patients.

Norpramin (known generically as desipramine hydrochloride) is an antidepressant in tablet form that belongs to a family of drugs called tricyclic antidepressants. It also been used to treat bulimia and attention deficit disorders as well as to help with cocaine withdrawal. It is only approved for use in adults.

Some people taking Norpramin have suffered serious and fatal when they also are taking another type of antidepressant, called an MAO inhibitor, a class of drugs that includes phenelzine and tranylcypromine.

Adverse reactions between drugs are a common cause for patient injuries and deaths. Physicians may fail to recognize the different medications patients are taking for a variety of diseases and conditions, leading to negative interactions between the drugs.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Dangerous Drugs, Legal Briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.