New Perspectives in Treatment with Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors

Abstract

Although monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) have had their clinical obituary written on many occasions in the 33 years since they were first introduced to clinical practice they remain very much alive. Although their prescription has fallen understandably with the introduction of many other drugs for the treatment of affective disorders they still have a place in the treatment of anxiety and depression. This is because they are often effective when other types of antidepressants have failed, because they are effective against disorders that are otherwise very difficult to treat, and because they have energizing properties that are possessed by virtually no other compounds. Their main clinical use is in mixed anxiety-depressive syndromes although in the United States they are also promoted for the treatment of panic disorder. Their main handicaps, potentially serious food and drug interactions, remain a serious deterrent to prescription but have been reduced by the introduction of new reversible compound...