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Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors

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Critical Care Toxicology

Abstract

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors were serendipitously discovered in the 1950s when tuberculosis patients in Swiss sanitariums treated with isoniazid were noted to experience mood-elevating effects. Iproniazid, another antitubercular hydrazine derivative, was discovered to inhibit monoamine oxidase and had even greater psychostimulatory effects than isoniazid [1]. This led to its use as an antidepressant and paved the way for the development of the first effective agents in the treatment of major depression, the nonselective irreversible MAO inhibitors. MAO inhibitors have been in clinical use since the 1960s although their use has been supplanted by newer antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) that have fewer serious adverse effects and are less hazardous in overdose. Their continued decline in use is confirmed by data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System which recorded 3,261 total exposures to MAO inhibitors with 12 fatalities from 2001 to 2013 [2–13]. This is compared to 6,076 total exposures and 58 fatalities for the period from 1989 to 2000 [14–24].

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Correspondence to Ayrn D. O’Connor .

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O’Connor, A.D., Mills, K.C. (2016). Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors. In: Brent, J., Burkhart, K., Dargan, P., Hatten, B., Megarbane, B., Palmer, R. (eds) Critical Care Toxicology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_28-2

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  1. Latest

    Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors
    Published:
    27 August 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_28-2

  2. Original

    Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors
    Published:
    01 February 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_28-1