Antidepressant Treatment of AIDS Related Depression.

To test the effectiveness treating AIDS related depression with imipramine hydrochloride. Depression syndromes are commonly associated with chronic, disabling, and fatal diseases. Due to the relentless course of HIV infection, there is a certain reluctance to treat the associated depression. In other illness, it has been proven that treating the depression often results in improvement of overall health status. This is a placebo controlled trial. Half of the patients are given imipramine hydrochloride every day for 6 weeks. Assessment is done by self reports and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Prior to entry all patients are given a psychiatric evaluation. There is a cross over phase in which placebo non responders are entered into an open-label study and given imipramine hydrochloride.