Some people who are battling depression are very familiar with these because they have already encountered these terms at one point in their lives. When you say MAOIs, this stands for Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors. They are known to be older antidepressants as compared to SSRIs.
One of the main reasons why some people think that they are still more effective is they target the neurotransmitters.
SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. This means that they just inhibit serotonin from causing high levels of stress and depression. Most of the time, people are only given MAOIs now when they are resistant to the various possible treatments that are supposed to get rid of depression.