Posted by Jack Smith on February 14, 2003, at 13:36:12
In reply to MAOI works 100% cases???? or not??, posted by Neo on February 14, 2003, at 12:56:11
I too have been incredibly impressed by what people say about MAOI's. If you do a search across the internet, you will rarely hear someone say that an MAOI flat out didn't work. YOu will hear that people had to stop them for one reason or another but they do seem to be incredibly effective.
I think the reason they are not prescribed so much is two-fold. First, with all the advent of prozac and its cousins and newer AD's, psychiatrists felt for a few years that they had found a cure to depression. Soon, however, it was realized that these anti-d's are only as effective as TCA's albeit with fewer side effects (usually). So, many doctors were not trained at all with MAOI's. Also, with prozac came other doctors willing to prescribe anti-d's, this was very rare prior to the late '80's as psychiatric drugs were considered to be only for use by psychiatrists. So, more people get their ad's by GPs and ob-gyn's who would never think of prescribing an MAOI.
The second reason why they are not prescribed is pretty obvious--why not try other ad's that do not have so many food and drug interactions. One of the best thing about the newer ad's (esp. zoloft and celexa) is that they hardly interact with anything.
Just my two cents on the subject
JACK
poster:Jack Smith
thread:140426
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030214/msgs/200426.html