 The paradoxical observation of a sedative inducing mania led to testing with depressed patients.The first trial of imipramine took place in 1955 and the first report of antidepressant effects was published by Swiss psychiatrist Roland Kuhn in 1957.Some testing of Geigy's imipramine, then known as Tofranil, took place at the Münsterlingen Hospital near Konstanz.