Are MAOI's beneficial in treating social phobia and or schizoaffective disor!
Question: I have not had any luck with SSRI's and am wondering if anyone has had any experience in the use of MAOI's in the treatment of these disorders.
Answers: I have not had any luck with SSRI's and am wondering if anyone has had any experience in the use of MAOI's in the treatment of these disorders.
I take parnate. Its helped me alot. Like you i had tried 20+ meds with no success. It hasnt helped my lack of motivation but it makes me less depressed. The dietry restrictions are actually easy to deal with.
Have you tried Cymbalta? It works a little differently from the others.
I had those diagnoses when I took Nardil and it worked well, but diagnoses were not correct.
MAOIs are effective for some people but have lots of drug interactions, dietary restrictions and potentially lethal side effects. Most docs avoid them unless nothing else works because the risks for most people outweight the benefits. If you have schizoaffective disorder I would be even more cautious about using a MAOIs as they often have interactions with antipsychotics which are the primary treatment modality for schizoaffective disorder. If you have not been taking anything other than SSRIs then either you are not being treated properly, your diagnoses are wrong, or both.
SSRI's are known to be the most effective.
But clearly those don't work for you. You should try an SNRI--like Effexor or Cymbalta. SSRI's didn't work for my boyfriend, but SNRI's worked well.
MAOI's are usually a person's last option. They are barely prescribed anymore, and for good reason. You can't eat a lot of things, because they will react badly with the drug--this includes cheese, alcohol, liver, meat byproducts or broths, processed meats, cured or pickled meats, avacadoes, eggplant, figs, grapes, oranges, pineapples, plums, prunes, raisins, chocolate, peanuts, and more. If you eat these things while you're on an MAOI, you could die. MAOI's also can't be combined with other anti-depressants, painkillers, stimulants, pseudoephedrine or DMX or DMT (all of which are in basically every cold medicine), antihistamines...and more.
Tricyclic anti-depressants are the worst for you to take if you have schizo-affective disorder--they often make it worse, actually.
So your plan should be: 1. Try SNRI's. 2. Discuss ANY other options with your doctor. 3. Worst-case scenario, try an MAOI. 4. Do not take a Tricyclic.