Tricyclic antidepressant's effects on visceral nociception and its underlying mechanisms

Objectives: Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) like Amitriptyline are established drugs in the treatment of IBS. Lately modern 5-HT agonists have demonstrated the importance of serotonergic mechanisms on visceral perception. The heterogeneity of potential drug actions of TCA's obviously plays a crucial role in their efficacy on visceral pain. In contrary, SSRIs fail to show these effects. Aims: This study aims to characterize the influence of amitriptyline on visceral nociception. Reserpine was used to antagonize TCA's sertonergic actions in order to discriminate these effects from others. Methods: We performed co…