MAOIs and hypertensive crises: the role of OTC drugs.

The authors report several cases showing that use of over-the-counter (OTC) medications containing decongestants can cause hypertensive reactions in patients who are treated with monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Patient instructions accompanying OTC products (particularly those containing phenylpropanolamine) often omit specific warnings about the dangers of those products' concomitant use with MAOIs. Of further concern is the opportunity for patients to be confused by the similarity in names between some prohibited combination products and other more pharmacologically innocuous products that are acceptable for concomitant use.