The paper describes a new and simple approach for spectrophotometric determination of tricyclic antidepressant drug amitriptyline. Enhancement of the colour intensity of the Fe(III)-SCN？ complex on addition of the drug amitriptyline forms the basis of the proposed method. The value of molar absorptivity of the Fe(III)-SCN？ amitriptyline ion pair complex in terms of the drug lies in the range of (2.82–3.36) × 103？L·mol？1·cm？1 at the absorption maximum 460？nm. The detection limit of the method was 0.3？μg·mL？1. The slope, intercept, and correlation coefficients for the present method were found to be 0.008, 0.002, and +0.998, respectively. The effect of analytical variables on the determination of the drug and the composition of the complex are discussed in the paper. The method is applicable in the determination of amitriptyline in pharmaceutical preparations. 1. Introduction Amitriptyline [3-(10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzol[a,d]cyclohept-5-ylidene) propyldimethylamine] constitutes an important class among the neurotherapeutics belonging to first generation of antidepressant drug [1, 2]. Recent studies show proinflammatory cytokine process takes place during clinical depression, mania, and bipolar disorder, and it is possible that symptoms of these conditions are attenuated by the pharmacological effect of antidepressants on the immune system [3–8]. Amitriptyline has a carboxylic structure with an exocyclic double bond at C-5 which is substituted with an N, N-dimethyl-1-propanamino side chain (Figure 1). Figure 1: Amitriptyline. Amitriptyline hydrochloride [AMIYTP]Cl represents a large group of compounds used in treatment of various mental diseases. The chemical structure of this compound is based on the condensed aromatic three-ring system which includes substituents in positions 2 and 10. The difference in chemical structure causes the different pharmaceutical activity of drug. The value of angle of these molecules is important; the more nearly planar the greater the neuroleptic activity. It is believed that drug amitriptyline acts by blocking the receptors of neurotransmitters, noradrenalin, in the synopsis in the central nervous system, which results in an increase of concentration of both molecules with a subsequent enhancement of their antidepressant potency. However, this drug suffers from several drawbacks, such as antiarrhythmic, anticholinergic, cardiovascular, and hyperthermia side effect, which may be reduced if the drugs are suitably vectored to the organism. Various analytical methods have been reported for determination of amitriptyline including
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