Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCA)

Rapid CDIA^TM Tricyclic Antidepressants Test kits are intended to screen for the presence of tricyclic antidepressants in human urine/saliva.

Tricyclic Antidepressants are a group of antidepressant drugs that are commonly used for treatment of depressive disorders. TCAs can be taken orally or by intramuscularly injection (IM). The symptoms of TCAs overdoses include agitation, confusion, hallucinations, hypertonicity, seizures, and EKG changes. The half-life of TCA varies from a few hours to several days. The commonly used TCAs are excreted with a very low percentage of unchanged drugs in the urine. Therefore, detection of the metabolites of TCAs in human urine has been used for screening the abuse of TCAs.