Complete remission of 'treatment resistant' severe melancholia in adolescents with phenelzine: two case reports.

ABSTRACT

We describe two cases of adolescents hospitalized with protracted courses of delusional melancholia who responded dramatically to treatment with phenelzine following multiple failed clinical trials with other agents and, in one case, ECT. The two cases are of interest in light of evidence linking delusional subtype of major depression in adolescents to bipolar disease, and the role of monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the management of adults with bipolar depression, as well as unipolar depressions unresponsive to other pharmacological treatments.