[MAO inhibitors and depressive disorders today]

MAO inhibitors are now only exceptionnally used in France. These medications are efficient to improve depressive states resistent to tricyclic antidepressants. Some authors suggest that we have to control the efficacy of the MAOI by evaluation of the part of inhibition of the activity of the enzyme MAO. This possibility of biological control, the apparition of specific medications inhibiting MAO A or MAO B, the efficacy of some associations (MAOI + tricyclic antidepressants or MAOI + tryptophane precursors) should lead us to reconsider our opinion about these medications.