SAFETY AND TOLERABILITY OF COMBINED TREATMENT WITH MOCLOBEMIDE AND SSRIS - A PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF 19 PATIENTS

Nineteen major depressed patients, resistant to previous pharmacothera pies, were treated by the addition of moclobemide (up to 600 mg/day) t o paroxetine or fluoxetine (20 mg/day) for 6 weeks in an open study to assess the adverse events and tolerability. There were 77 emergent ev ents, insomnia, headache, nausea and dizziness being the most common. Many events were rated as severe. The high rate of adverse events sugg ests that there may be clinically significant interactions between moc lobemide and SSRIs. However, the uncontrolled data on effectiveness is encouraging and the combination deserves further attention as a strat egy for treating intractable major depression.