Posted by mworkman on June 15, 2006, at 22:36:13
In reply to Re: EMSAM doses too low to effect depression ?, posted by notfred on June 11, 2006, at 21:08:36
Well, rxlist says that "EMSAM systems are transdermal patches that contain 1 mg of selegiline per cm2 and deliver approximately 0.3 mg of selegiline per cm2 over 24 hours."
That is how they get the 20mg/20cm2 = 6mg/24 hours dosing. 20 * .3 = 6 mg. So 6 mg of the drug goes into your system over 24 hours.
It then says that "Following dermal application of EMSAM to humans, 25% - 30% of the selegiline content on average is delivered systemically over 24 hours, (range ~10% - 40%). Consequently, the degree of drug absorption may be 1/3 higher than the average amounts of 6 to 12mg per 24 hours."
What I get from this is that you could get up to 9 mg over 24 hours from the patch. 6 mg is just the average.
That is just the drug going into your system, though. The big difference is the blood concentrations of emsam vs. oral selegiline. If you look at the 6mg emsam vs. 10 mg oral, the blood concentrations of emsam are 7 or 8 times higher, and the metabolites are much lower. So, to me, it seems that you are getting about 7 or 8 times as much of the drug. So, emsam seems to make the blood concentration much higher than the oral dosing, which is what really matters.
You can't really say that since you only get so much more of the drug from emsam that it isn't as strong. What happens in the body is what really matters, and emsam puts much more selegiline into the blood at lower doses than oral does.
As for a it being a dirty drug, ssri's may only directly effect serotonin, but the brain and the rest of the body is so interconnected that they indirectly affect many other parts of the brain and body. It is like dominos, you can only push one, but the rest will fall down with it.
poster:mworkman
thread:655515
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060610/msgs/657457.html