A simple and rapid spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of tricyclic anti-depressant drugs such as trazodone (TZH), amineptine (APH) and amitriptyline (ATPH) hydrochlorides in pure form and in different pharmaceutical preparations. The charge transfer (CT) reaction between TZH, APH and ATPH as electron donors and TCNQ as electron acceptor was utilized for their spectrophotometric determination. The optimum experimental conditions, like time, temperature, stoichiometry, solvents, for the CT complex formation are established. The method permits the determination of TZH, APH and ATPH over a concentration range of 10-400, 10-440 and 10-300 microg ml(-1), respectively. The sensitivity (S) is found to be 0.09, 0.087 and 0.069 g cm(-2) for TZH, APH and ATPH, respectively. The SD values are found to be 0.146-0.293, 0.154-0.285 and 0.091-0.212 and RSD values are 0.142-1.92, 0.297-1.92 and 0.212-0.915 for TZH, APH and ATPH, respectively. The low values of the relative standard deviation indicate the high accuracy and precision of the method. The mean recovery values obtained together with a high correlation coefficient values, amount in the range 98-101.5, 98.7-102.9 and 93-101.9 for TZH, APH and ATPH, respectively. The method is applicable for the assay of the investigated drugs in different dosage forms and the results are in good agreement with those obtained by the official method.