Depressive classification and prediction of response to phenelzine.

A variety of depressive classifications were used to predict response to four weeks' treatment with phenelzine. Better response was found in outpatients rather than inpatients, in atypical depressives, in less severe depressives with a pattern of anxiety and other neurotic symptoms, and in groups characterized as hostile and agitated. The findings, although a little patchy, gave clear support to the concept of a specific clinical group responsive to MAO inhibitors.