Attempts to attenuate the 'cheese effect'. Combined drug therapy in depressive illness.

Although earlier results, employing intravenous tyramine challenge, had indicated that a tricyclic antidepressant plus monoamine oxidase inhibitor drug combination might be free from the 'cheese effect', the experiments reported here, involving oral tyramine challenge during the combined therapy, showed that relaxation of a tyramine-free diet during such a drug regimen might be unsafe. Preliminary observations indicated that combined (-)-deprenyl plus nonselective monoamine oxidase inhibitor therapy might lead to an unacceptable degree of orthostatic hypotension without reduction in tyramine sensitivity.