Desipramine clearance in children and adolescents: Absence of effect of development and gender

Objective: To examine the influence of development and gender on the pharmacokinetics of desipramine (DMI) in the pediatric population. Method: DMI pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated from 407 routinely drawn, dose- and weight-normalized serum concentrations in 173 youths receiving DMI (90 children, 83 adolescents; 29 were female, 144 were male). Results: Mean pharmacokinetic parameters for the entire population included dose (3.78 ± 1.51 mg/kg), weight- and dose-normalized serum concentration (45.41 ± 47.39 [μg/L]/[mg/kg]), and DMI clearance (0.88 ± 1.51 [L/kg]/hr). No between- group differences for children and adolescents were detected in dose (child, adolescent) (3.73 ± 1.40 mg/kg, 3.83 ± 1.68 mg/kg), weight- and dose- normalized serum concentrations (44.52 ± 39.6 [μg/L]/[mg/kg], 46.34 ± 34.89 [μg/L]/[mg/kg]; p = .62), and clearance (0.680 ± 0.890 [L/kg]/hr, 0.695 ± 1.05 [L Jkg]/hr; p = .103). No between-group gender differences were detected in dose (male, female) (3.83 ± 1.55 mg, 3.39 ± 1.84 mg), weight- and dose-normalized serum concentrations (45.15 ± 37.76 [μg/L]/[mg/kg], 47.14 ± 34.96 [μg/L]/[mg/kg]; p = .720), and clearance (0.699 ± 0.89 [L/kg]/hr, 0.606 ± 0.535 [L/kg]/hr; p = .390). Conclusions: These results suggest that age and gender do not significantly influence DMI clearance or dose-normalized serum concentrations in the pediatric population.