Posted by Racer on April 19, 2006, at 21:47:15
In reply to When is it time to try a MAOI?, posted by UgottaHaveHOPE on April 19, 2006, at 0:12:46
Well, that depends on a lot of things... Probably a lot of different answers, because there are a lot of different situations people experience.
For what it's worth, there is somewhere out there -- and I can't find it right now -- a protocol showing what drugs to try in what order. Maybe on Internet Mental Health? That says one thing, other similar lists show another...
For some people, the dietary restrictions aren't a problem, they're healthy, have a good enough relationship with their doctor, etc, and MAOIs are probably pretty high on the list of options. From what I read, they're the Big Guns for depression: if you're depressed, they pretty much *will* help. But there are cases when they're much less attractive an option.
This just came up with my T, after my pdoc suggested EMSAM as an option for me. I'm not sure it would be, because my blood pressure runs so low, and is easily affected by medications. (I can't take TCAs, for instance, because of it.) But when my T heard "MAOI" -- well, you probably heard her yell, right? Her first words were about calling the pdoc to "talk about" that. And you know what? It wasn't from ignorance, it was from knowledge. Knowledge of my condition, my history, my psychopathology. The dietary restrictions are intimidating for me, but there's also a part of me that says, "But if I *had* to restrict what I ate..." My T knows that, and she knows that restricting *any* food, for pretty much any reason, is not a good idea with an anorexic. So, for me, MAOIs would be pretty far down the list, realistically. Especially for indefinite use, because about half of what the things I eat without going through craziness are on the restricted list.
In terms of effectiveness, though, it sounds to me, from reading here and elsewhere, that MAOIs are the most reliably effective drugs for treating depression.
Hope that helps, and that it wasn't too long a ramble.
poster:Racer
thread:634688
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060417/msgs/635002.html