Posted by chiaratara on March 19, 2002, at 2:03:59
In reply to Actually, why do *PSYCHIATRISTS* prefer SSRIs, posted by Hal on March 17, 2002, at 7:16:31
i will have to disagree with you on this one. SSRIs have worked for a whole lot of people. i think it should be what is tried first. when someone has weeds in their yard, do they immediately go for the napalm? SSRIs don't have dangerous side effects and interactions and once again, they work for a lot of people. unfortunately, most pdocs don't see their patients every day and cannot monitor what their client is doing. pdocs know that their clients aren't always totally honest with them. "no, i'm not doing any drugs." or, in the case of MAOIs, "no i don't eat tofu or cheese." these drugs that you are refering to should be used when other, safer methods are not working. would you want to give a freshman in college an MAOI and hope that she doesn't go out drinking the next weekend? Have you ever read the package insert on some of those drugs? in this day and age when people are on all sorts of perscription medication and self medicate, they don't need to be worrying if their patient is going to have heart problems from eating a hotdog with sauerkraut that interacts with their MAOI. have you looked at the dietary restrictions for people on MAOIs? i will eat paxil like candy before i would consider taking an MAOI.
i do think that for people like you, who know a lot about psychiatric drugs, MAOIs wouldn't be as much of a risk. however, for the 90% of the people that walk into a pdoc's office looking for an antidepressant, i would suggest a goody bag filled with prozac. SSRI side effects are nothing compared to other medications.
poster:chiaratara
thread:98340
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020318/msgs/98749.html