Kline, Nathan

In 1957, Nathan Kline, Harry Loomer and John Saunders, at the Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, reported the first influential assessment of iproniazid as a psychic energizer on non-tubercular psychiatric patients, some of whom were suffering from depression. According to their report, about two-thirds of patients showed a measurable response to the drug. This is about the same response rate that is reported for clinical... 

The antidepressant properties of these earlier antidepressants were chance discoveries. Imipramine was first developed as a potential antipsychotic, but when Kuhn (2) tested the clinical efficacy of this agent, he found that it only benefited depressed schizophrenic patients. This observation prompted him to test it in patients who were suffering from melancholia. Iproniazid was developed as an antitubercular drug, but the observation that euphoria was a side effect led George Crane ( 3) to conduct clinical trials, which found it useful in purely depressed patients. A year later, Nathan Kline ( 4), following up on this observation, reported positive results when he administered iproniazid to another depressed group. 

The positive effects of the monoamine oxidase inhibitor isoniazid and the amine reuptake blocker imipramine were both discovered by accident. Isoniazid was being used as an antitubercular drug when patients reports of elation led Nathan Kline to test and to demonstrate its antidepressant power. Ronald Kuhn had synthesized imipramine, a tricyclic molecule, as a possible me-too analog of chlorpromazine. When Kuhn found that it had little or no antipsychotic potential, he tried it out on depressives, and voila They got better. After a while, that is. As with isoniazid, imip-ramine s antidepressant action was evident only after one to four weeks of administration. 

Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research 140 Old Orangeburg Rd, Orangeburg NY, 10962, USA Email butler nki.rfmh.org... 

NATHAN BACK, State University of New Yaric at Buffalo IRUN R. COHEN, The Weizmam Institute of Science ABEL LAJTHA, N.S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research JOHN D. LAMBRIS, University of Pennsylvania RODOLFO PAOLETTI, University of Milan... 

Miller, I., M. Campbell, D. Huttenlocher, A. Nathan, F.-R. Kline, P. Moran, N. Zych, B. Schimpf, S. Lupashin, E. Garcia, J. Catlin, M. Kurdziel, and H. Fujishima. 2008. Team Cornell s Skynet robust perception and planning in an urban environment. Journal of Field Robotics 25(8) 493-527. 

Kline, Stephen J., Nathan Rosenberg, 1986, An Overview of Innovation, in R. Landau, N. Rosenberg (eds.), The Positive Sum Strategy Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth, National Academy, WA, 275-305. 

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