Drug-specific EEG frequency spectra and their time courses produced in the cat by antidepressants and a benzodiazepine.

The results of the tricyclic antidepressants imipramine, desipramine and doxepin and the anti-anxiety agent diazepam were tested for their effects on the frequency distribution of spontaneous brain electrical activity (EEG) in the cat. Multivariate statistical techniques were employed to make an objective and quantitative assessment of the results of broad-band frequency analysis in terms of certain dose-related and drug-specific variables. In spite of several clinical and pharmacological differences in their properties, the antidepressants produced remarkably similar profiles of frequency change which were unrelated to those produced by diazepam.