Neurochemical and pharmacological properties of tianeptine, a novel antidepressant.

Tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant with an unusual chemical structure (a long lateral chain grafted on to a substituted dibenzothiazepin nucleus), and with biochemical and animal-behavioural properties which are strikingly different from those of classical tricyclics. Unlike the latter, which decrease serotonin (5-HT) uptake, acute and chronic tianeptine treatment enhances 5-HT uptake in rat brain and in rat and human platelets ex vivo