Since drug companies are advertising to the public on TV they have to tell us about all the dire consequences of using their products, such as ‘your hair will fall out, lost libido and possible stroke’ They always say…‘do not use if you are using an MAO inhibitor’. Other than the John Birch Society, what is an MAO inhibitor?
[ul][li]These kind of questions should be posted in the "General Questions Forum.[/li][li]For any medical advice, consult a licensed physician.[/li][li]MAO inhibitors, aka monoamine oxidase inhibitors, are anti-depressants that block the activity of monoamine oxidase, hence the name. Their side effects may include chest pains, headaches, nausea, etc…[/ul][/li]
Quand les talons claquent, l’esprit se vide.
Maréchal Lyautey
It doesn’t sound like this comment/question refers to a SD column, so I’m going to move it to General Questions.
Jill
They were the first class of drugs that were widely sucessful against depression. Why aren’t they used? As good as they are they are rammed full of side effects. They require strict maintainence of diet. Most depressed people have trouble taking drugs without all the extra stuff
Now we have other classes of Anti Depressents that do the job as well. This class is reserved usually for people who fail to respond to Prozac, Imiprimine and the likes of those classes.
The problem with MAO inhibitors is that MAO isn’t just hanging around in your body waiting to make you depressed; it’s there because your body needs it and uses it as a sort of general-purpose “cleaner-upper” for certain kinds of amine compounds.
If it’s inhibited from doing this, then you DO NOT want to swamp your body with such compounds… for instance, you can OD on a cumulative dosage that would not affect a normal person just because your body doesn’t have a chance to metabolize the last dose before you add more to it by taking a new one. You have to be careful what you eat, and you DEFINITELY have to be careful with amine-type drugs.