Long-term treatment of depression with isocarboxazide.

Isocarboxazide has been used as long-term treatment for a selected group of 20 depressive patients, of whom some 90% (17/19) were non-responders to treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. At the follow-up the median duration of illness was 162 months, and the median duration of treatment was 42 months. Side-effects and interactions were moderate thus legitimating a treatment procedure on which all the patients of the material responded better than on any other antidepressive treatment. Treatment with monoamine-oxidase-inhibitors, like isocarboxazide, should not be left untried in the case of therapy-resistant depression.