1952

Publication of results of isoniazid (an antitubercular hydrazide) in treatment of TB; it “not only appeared to be more effective than streptomycin but also could be given by mouth and rarely caused serious adverse reactions.” It was most effective in combination with streptomycin (Dowling, 168). APHS trial found isoniazid was as effective as streptomycin and PAS together, but that isoniazid combined with streptomycin was much better (F. Ryan, 363). A side-effect of isoniazid was its psycho-stimulative effect, which proved even greater in iproniazid. A group of researchers (from Baylor, Minnesota, and Univ. Córdoba, Spain) saw that the mood-raising effects of hydrazide therapy in tuberculosis patients could become the primary indication for use of the drug in psychiatry. Nathan Kline, then assistant professor at Columbia, published a report on first neuropsychiatric experiences with iproniazid in 1957; by 1958, though only marketed as an antitubercular agent (Marsilid), it had been given to over 400,000 depressed psychiatric patients. Iproniazid withdrawn from US market in 1961 owing to alleged linkage to cases of jaundice and nephrotoxicity/. Today, MAOIs are second-choice drugs in cases of refractory atypical depression (López-Munoz III; Tone II, 128-9)