Must antidepressants be anticholinergic to inhibit muricide?

Two classical tricyclic antidepressants possessing anticholinergic side effects, amitriptyline and desipramine, were compared to newer antidepressants lacking such activity, mianserin, trazodone, and bupropion, for their ability to inhibit muricidal behavior. As has been previously shown for the tricyclic antidepressants, the newer antidepressants without anticholinergic activity also depressed mouse-killing behavior. Scopolamine HBr, at a dose which lacked antimuricidal activity, was tested for its ability to potentiate the antimuricidal effect of these antidepressants. Although potentiation was not demonstrated, there was a trend for scopolamine to enhance the antimuricidal effect of all drugs tested, regardless of whether or not they had anticholinergic activity.