As for the research on chromium picolinate and the
atypical depression cycle, Davidson investigated Zeramax[TM], a chromium picolinate-based supplement from Nutrition 21, as a proprietary nutrition therapy for depression.
Particular interest in this construct grew from studies that suggested that
atypical depression is more responsive to a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) than to a TCA, but also that SSRIs are not dearly superior to MAOI.s.(17) Response to ECT might also be better in atypical than in typical depression.(18)
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the treatment of
atypical depression. J Clin Psychopharmacol 1985; 5:131-7.
Concerns about side effects--primarily hypertensive crisis--and dietary restrictions have lead many clinicians to curtail their use of MAOls, but increased knowledge of these drugs can help psychiatrists reconsider this treatment option, particularly for patients with
atypical depression.
Those patients could benefit from using monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, since those drugs are most effective in
atypical depression or hysteroid dysphoria, which often occurs with irritability, sensitivity to rejection, loneliness, anger, and eating and sleeping too much.
Akiskol and Benazzi (35) suggest that
atypical depression may be a subtype of the bipolar spectrum.
Less-frequent diagnoses in the arrest group included
atypical depression (five subjects), schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder (three subjects each), and schizophreniform disorder, bipolar affective disorder, or major depression (two subjects each).
Connor of Duke University in Durham, N.C., reported positive results in the open-label phase of a trial evaluating modafinil for
atypical depression.
Many psychiatrists equate
atypical depression with conditions such as hyperphagia and hypersomnia.
"That constellation of symptoms known as
atypical depression seems to preferentially respond to our old friends--the MAO inhibitors," Dr.