IS IT SAFE TO TAKE PROZAC WITH MONOAMINE OXIDASE INHIBITORS (MAOIS)?
No. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and Prozac just don’t mix. A few patients who have taken both drugs simultaneously have fed severe reactions mat include confusion, sweating, shivering, muscle spasms, tremors, and restlessness, as well as symptoms of rigidity, hyperthermia, rapid fluctuations of pulse and blood pressure, extreme agitation, delirium, coma, and in eight cases, death. Even patients who stopped taking Prozac and then immediately started up on an MAOI have had these reactions.
A patient who wants to switch to Prozac from an MAOI must allow fourteen days to elapse after discontinuing MAOI treatment before the MAOI is completely out of the system. Only then can Prozac be safely tried.
A patient who wants to go in the other direction, ceasing treatment with Prozac and beginning treatment with an MAOI, must wait even longer. Because Prozac and its major breakdown product, norfluoxetine, remain in the body for a long time, a minimum of five weeks is needed after discontinuing Prozac before MAOI treatment can commence.
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