Questions and Answers
I have been taking Nardil for eleven years. Is this amount of time unusual? It seems that every time I tried to stop taking it my body just doesn't seem to want to adjust. I become extremely lethargic and no other medicines seem to help with the adjustment.
I've cheated in the food catogories thousands of times, and nothing ever happened. I did have surgery, however, and was given demerol, (even though it was on my chart.) I had a life threatening reaction and the hospital just told me I was allergic to Demerol.
Very few doctors that I've seen really know what Nardil is. I usually have to ask if they prescribe medicine if it will interact or not. What information can you give me on the long term affects of Nardil?
Hi ... sorry to hear of you problems.
You don't mention what other medication you might have had prescribed for your depression or the dose of phenelzine (Nardil), a 'mono-amine-oxidase' inhibitor. Nardil possesses the potential for two serious toxicities; one, luckily relatively uncommon is hepatotoxicity (liver failure), the other, hypertensive crisis caused by the consumption of forbidden food or drinks. There are many other minor side-effects. All this leads to its recommended use only in patients who have not responded adequately to other antidepressants, such as the so-called 'tricyclics', or to patients with atypical depressions.
You mention 'cheating' on your food categories - you've either been lucky or on a very low dose of the antidepressant (usual daily dosage is 30 - 90mg./day). There are many drug interactions - if you can't get the information from your physician/psychiatrist, go talk to your pharmacist who should have the information at his fingertips and usually eager to help.
One of the most serious drug interactions is the occurrence of hyperpyrexia (very high body temperature) when some other drug/s are given while you are on Nardil. This was your experience during surgery - meperidine (Demerol) is one of the drugs contraindicated because of the potential seriousness of this event.
If you are concerned about your contiuning use of Nardil or the
occurrence of unwanted side-effects you haven't mentioned, you may wish to
consider getting further professional advice from you psychiatrist.
Best wishes.