Recent experience with trazodone.

Trazodone is an atypical antidepressant with additional anxiolytic effects. Recent European experience with trazodone is reviewed with respect to antidepressant efficacy, side effects (particularly anticholinergic), anxiolytic actions, cardiotoxicity, overdosage, and use in the elderly. From the data presented in this paper it is concluded that trazodone is effective both as an antidepressant and as an anxiolytic agent, with few side effects and low cardiotoxicity. It is safer than tricyclic antidepressant agents in overdosage and better tolerated in the elderly patient.