Posted by Jost on May 9, 2006, at 23:27:19
In reply to Re: MAOIs, posted by Caedmon on May 9, 2006, at 19:30:31
> Hi Don,
>
> The figures you quoted, were they from http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic318.htm ? You posted a link to the aapcc's website, but I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of anything on it.
>
The figures Don quoted, unless I'm mistaken (which I might be) were from a "Summary of fatal exposures reported to TESS in 2002" published in the Am J. of Emergency Med.However, the Summary, as I read it, noted only one death from an maoi, ie parnate; and the cause of death was "ther. err."--ie therapist error, rather than an adverse drug reaction.
Possibly, Don's statistics are from another source. However, the type of AD associated with the highest number of fatalities on this report, by far, was tricyclics, particularly. amitriptyline. Is this the most widely prescribed tricylic?
Most of the deaths were intentional. There are a few other causes, such as "malicious," "adv. react." and "ther. err." The number of adverse reactions is so small that it would seem hard to draw any conclusions from this one report.
Last night I came across a paper--I can't find it now--that suggested that deaths from tricyclics were greater in absolute numbers than those from maois, although a somewhat greater proportion of the maoi fatalities were intentional. The difference didn't seem so great as to make the argument that maois are to be avoided at all costs. Obviously, care must be taken in their use..
I'd be interested in Don's sources, though.
Jost
poster:Jost
thread:639045
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060504/msgs/642020.html