Posted by Tomatheus on May 2, 2013, at 20:53:03
In reply to Re: Nardil agitation, depression, suicidal thoughts, posted by Daniell on May 2, 2013, at 20:02:32
> I was just wondering why exactly MAOIs need such high doses at the start. Surely if I take 30 per day the enzyme will be inhibited sufficiently in the end?
I know that there are studies that found Nardil to be lacking in efficacy that have been criticized for using doses that are too low. It's been a little while since I've read any studies on Nardil, but if I recall correctly, the studies that found Nardil to be an effective antidepressant used high doses of the medication, and I suspect that that's why doctors generally try to get their patients up to higher doses as quickly as they can.
I tend to agree with your logic that if 30 mg of Nardil would work as a maintenance dose, then it would make some sense to just start off at 30 mg instead of starting out at a high dose only to bring the dose down. However, most of the controlled studies that have been done on Nardil have only followed patients for relatively short periods of time (no more than 2-3 months, if my understanding is correct), and I don't think that any of these short-term studies found 30 mg of Nardil to be an effective dose. That's not to say that there's absolutely no chance that you'll respond to 30 mg of Nardil, but the published literature on the medication doesn't seem to support using such a dose, at least not initially.
Other members here with information to add about Nardil or other MAOIs are welcome to contribute to the discussion. I would imagine that if others have some information that they would like to share that they'll share it.
T.
Conditions: schizoaffective disorder & probable idiopathic hypersomnia
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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130501/msgs/1043108.html