Posted by FredPotter on October 15, 2009, at 15:05:51
In reply to Re: You never know-Nardil vs. Parnate, posted by SLS on October 15, 2009, at 5:07:47
Hi Scott I did a google search on parnate+melatonin and came up with several papers in journals that said Parnate produced melatonin. In addition I get that awful restless legs feeling, like a tickling in the bones, only in arms as well, everywhere really. Just a guess, but melatonin+amphetamine-like metabolite might cause the distressing feeling of sleepiness+agitation. Ken Gillman suggests that propanolol should get rid of this but I haven't tried it yet.
I think too many people think of the effect of the drug, whereas the true picture is given by the drug+all metabolites, complicated in the case of Parnate by the reaction between the drug and one of its metabolites (I'm told).
Apparently the effect of Nardil is complicated by its requirement for MAO to metabolise it. So the less MAO the more Nardil hangs around until presumably it builds up to high levels.
Ken Gillman's theory about Parnate is that after bringing MAO down by 80% one can go on to a maintenance dose of 10mg on alternate days. This assumes it takes about 4 weeks for MAO to be build up to the previous level. I would think that the decline in MAO would have a decaying exponential shape so Parnate gets less efficient at disabling MAO as MAO levels drop, possibly because unsullied MAO molecules are harder to "find". So I think this 10mg alt die is too low.
Something else that interested me in the changeover from Nardil to Parnate was that in using virtually no washout period I expected Parnate to work even faster than stated. Then I thought that the position on the MAO molecule (a great 3 dimensional protein) where Nardil blocks, is vanishingly unlikely to be the same position where Parnate blocks it. So much of the Parnate is wasted at first as it blocks MAO molecules already blocked by Nardil. Hence the onset isn't that quick after all.
The fact that I don't mention MAO A and B shows I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Ken Gillman took my remark about melatonin and is now looking into it
Fred
poster:FredPotter
thread:16095
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091012/msgs/921030.html