Not to be confused with Amitriptyline, amitriptylinoxide is one of the tricyclic antidepressants that started its journey in Europe twenty years into the discovery of TCAs, in the 1970s and was used mainly for the treatment of depression. It is both an analogue (basically a compound that has a structure similar to another one but differs in one or more atoms or what’s called functional groups and substructures) and a metabolite (small molecules that are a product of metabolism) of Amitriptyline.
Unlike Amitriptyline, it has much fewer negative side effects, some of the side effects found previously in Amitriptyline included dry mouth, drowsiness, feeling of being sedated, cardiotoxicity, dizziness and sweating. Click here for a more thorough list of amitriptyline side effects.
Amitriptylinoxide can be found sold mainly in Germany and Luxembourg under brand names Amioxid-neuraxpharm, Ambinalon and Equilibrin.
Like most TCAs, Amitriptylinoxide inhibits the reabsorption of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine to some extent. What this does is increase the levels of the serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine neurotransmitters in the brain, similar to the effects of amphetamines like methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). The effects of TCAs are of course much lower than the ones felt with MDMA.