Desipramine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Desipramine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Available as: Tablet · Capsule
Sold as: 2 products — Desipramine Hydrochloride and Pertofrane
Prescription?: Prescription only
Generic available?: Yes
What the pharmacy pays: about $8 for a 30-count supply — not your price

Every desipramine product we track (2)

Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.

Desipramine products
#	Drug	Rating	Type	Form	Generic?	Pharmacy pays
1	Desipramine Hydrochloride	72/100	Prescription	Tablet	Generic	$8	View →
2	Pertofrane	70/100	Prescription	Capsule	Generic	$8	View →

What desipramine pills look like

Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.

Desipramine pill imprints
Imprint	Strength	Colour	Shape	Maker
AA;11	10 mg	blue	round	—
AA;12	25 mg	yellow	round	—
AA;13	50 mg	green	round	—
AA;15	100 mg	pink	round	—
AA;16	150 mg	white	round	—
ING;112	10 mg	white	round	—
I82	50 mg	white	round	—
I83	75 mg	white	round	—
N6	10 mg	white	square	—
I84	100 mg	white	round	—
I85	150 mg	white	round	—
I86	25 mg	white	round	—

Desipramine recalls

From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.

How long desipramine keeps

No desipramine label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.

Desipramine and breastfeeding

From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.

Milk levels of desipramine and its metabolite are low and have not been detected in the serum of breastfed infants. Immediate side effects have not been reported and a limited amount of follow-up has found no adverse effects on infant growth and development. Desipramine use during breastfeeding would usually not be expected to cause any adverse effects in breastfed infants, especially if the infant is older than 2 months. A safety scoring system finds desipramine use to be possible during breastfeeding.

Full LactMed record for desipramine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider instead

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised April 18, 2022. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.

What people report to the FDA about desipramine

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 193 reports naming desipramine, and the FDA flagged 70% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:

fatigue14 reports
headache13 reports
nausea12 reports
confusional state11 reports
dyspnoea11 reports
depression10 reports
drug hypersensitivity10 reports
hypertension10 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean desipramine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label.

Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 25, 2026.

Related calculators

How long it stays in your system →

Frequently asked questions

Can you take desipramine with other medicines?

It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run desipramine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.

What brand names is desipramine sold under?

We track 2 desipramine-containing products in the U.S.: Desipramine Hydrochloride and Pertofrane. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.

What forms does desipramine come in?

Across the brands we track, desipramine is currently marketed as tablet and capsule, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.

Is there a generic desipramine?

Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic desipramine product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.

Has desipramine been recalled?

The FDA's Enforcement database lists at least 5 recall records whose product description mentions desipramine. The most recent: Desipramine Hydrochloride Tablets (Oct 6, 2025). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.

Cite this page

APA: pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Desipramine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/desipramine
MLA: “Desipramine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/desipramine.

We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.

Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.

Read the full FDA label for desipramine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.