Pharmacol. tests on animals showed the tite compound, L 22005 (I) [65747-00-4], to have antidepressant activity similar to that of iprindole. However, its high hepatotoxicity caused further testing of the compound to be abandoned. I (m.p. 200°) was prepared by room-temperature reaction of 2-phenylindole [948-65-2] with 1-dimethylamino-3-chloropropane [109-54-6] in DMF in the presence of NaH, followed by formation of the HCl salt of the resultant free base [65774-01-8] (m.p. 52°) by reaction with dry HCl.