Selegiline (l-deprenyl, Eldepryl) ??? Anyone??

My mother told me that her dog was on this med and so was Mel Gibson. So I ran off to see what the dog and Mel are on. Seems that this med is also used for CFIDS to help with cognitive issues.
Has anyone tried this med? Experiences on this please????
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"Selegiline (l-deprenyl, Eldepryl) is a drug used for the treatment of early-stage Parkinson's disease, depression and senile dementia. In normal clinical doses it is a selective irreversible MAO-B inhibitor, however in larger doses it loses its specificity and also inhibits MAO-A. Dietary restrictions are common for MAOI treatments, but special dietary restrictions for lower doses have been found to be unnecessary[1], and dietary restrictions appear to be unnecessary at standard doses when selegiline is taken as Emsam, the transdermal patch form, as no adverse events due to diet have ever been reported with Emsam.[2] The drug was researched by Jozsef Knoll et al. (Hungary). Selegiline belongs to a class of drugs called phenethylamines. Selegiline consists of a l-desoxyephedrine (levomethamphetamine) skeleton with a propargyl group attached to the nitrogen atom"
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Pharmacopsychiatry

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteD...oduktNr=224082&Ausgabe=226268&ArtikelNr=26494
Vol. 37, No. 3, 1998
Free Abstract Article (References) Article (PDF 191 KB)

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Pharmacopsychiatry
Original Paper
Single-Blind, Placebo Phase-in Trial of Two Escalating Doses of Selegiline in the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Benjamin H. Natelsona, Joseph Cheua, Nancy Hilla, Michael Bergena, Leo Korna, Thomas Dennyb, Kristina Dahla

CFS Center and Departments of
a Neurosciences and
b Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, N.J., USA
Address of Corresponding Author
Neuropsychobiology 1998;37:150-154 (DOI: 10.1159/000026494)
________________________________________
Key Words
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Selegiline
Monoamine oxidase inhibitor
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Abstract
Aim: To perform a clinical trial of selegiline in 25 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) where patients were told they would receive placebo or active agent at different times during the 6-week trial. We chose selegiline, a specific monoamine oxidase (MAO) B receptor inhibitor, because a prior trial of low-dose phenelzine, a nonspecific MAO inhibitor, showed a small but significant therapeutic effect. Methods: Questionnaires comprised of 19 tests of mood, fatigue, functional status and symptom severity were collected at the start and end of the trial as well as 2 weeks after its start. The trial was done in three 2-week blocks: in the first, 2 placebo pills were given per day; in the next, one 5-mg tablet of agent and one placebo were given per day, and in the last, a 5-mg tablet of agent was given twice a day. The plan was to compare the changes in the 19 tests during the placebo phase to those found in the active treatment phase in 19 patients completing the trial. Findings: Significant improvement in 3 variables tension/anxiety, vigor and sexual relations was found. A significant pattern of improvement compared to worsening was found for the 19 self-report vehicles during active treatment as compared with placebo treatment. Evidence for an antidepressant effect of the drug was not found. Conclusions: Selegiline has a small but significant therapeutic effect in CFS which appears independent of an antidepressant effect.________________________________________
Author Contacts
Benjamin H. Natelson, MDDepartment of Neurosciences, New Jersey Medical School
88 Ross Street
East Orange, NJ 07018 (USA)
Tel. +1 (201) 676 1000, ext. 1414, Fax +1 (201) 676 4461, E-Mail bhn@nbunj.jvnc.net
________________________________________
Article Information
Number of Print Pages : 5
Number of Figures : 0, Number of Tables : 1, Number of References : 28
2010 S. Karger AG, Basel

 

If Mel Gibson is taking that, it doesn't seem to be working so good.

 

I took Nardil (phenelzine - another MAOI on and off for 12 years). The only thing that helped was phenelzine. Nardil only seemed to work at a fairly high dose for me. What do I mean by it worked? I mean I went from being totally unable to do anything but lying flat in bed (as I am currently) to being able to work a desk job as a programmer and participate in the lives of my two (then) small children. Why am I not taking it now? Because after 12 years of taking it almost continuously and despite rigorous (dare I say religious) adherence to the diet, I had a stroke from it in December 1999. I know it worked because my doctor regularly took me off of it for months periodically to try every new antidepressant and bipolar medicine that came onto the market - and every time I was bedridden and then when I got back on it I was relatively OK. You have to wait 3 weeks after stopping it to allow it to completely leave your system before ingesting any substance on the forbidden list. None of them did anything. Only the Nardil worked. So, what was my diagnosis, you may ask? Atypical depression and bipolar disorder. Why bipolar disorder? Because some days I was better and had more energy, and some days I was worse and had less energy - and of course anyone knows that is bipolar! Please notice I was not diagnosed with depression, but with Atypical depression. Guess I just wouldn't fit neatly into their categories. And why depression - because I responded to a medication for depression, ergo: I must have depression!!!!!!!! Talk about circular thinking! And a lack of scientific curiosity as to why it worked! After my stroke I went back to UCSF Langley Porter for psychological testing and passed with flying colors.

Anyway, back to the MAOI. Taking an old style MAOI like Nardil requires avoidance of certain foods, supplements and many medications or you can have a hypertensive crisis, or even a stroke (a hemmorage, not a blockage). Thankfully, I recovered from the stroke. When I say "avoidance," I mean you can NEVER, EVER ingest even a minute amount of those things, not you can be good most of the time, but a little cheat here and there is acceptable! I didn't eat anything on the forbidden list, yet I had a stroke and I had had many hypertensive crises over the years. Yet I did get 12 fairly functional years from it and was very depressed about my prospects for leading an even partially functional life without it. I still had days of being bedridden even on it, so it does not get rid of this illness.

I think Selegiline is a different and perfectly safe MAO inhibitor, and I used to get Cyprenil from Mexico. It helped a bit, but not as dramatically as Nardil. I was actually thinking of ordering Cyprenil again.

 

There are quite a few people in the "Anti-Aging" forums that take this periodically as it is suppose to be very neuroprotective and maybe has a bit of a detoxifying effect on the brain. I believe they cycle it because I think it can down regulate dopamine. Just a tidbit of info and please don't consider this as very accurate or a suggestion to take this medication. I think one of the forums was "ImmInst.org" (or something similar) and it would be in the Supplement or Nootropic section. There are parts of this website that gets out on the edge of science, but the supplements section has some good articles and links to published studies on a lot of the supplements.

 

hi muffin,
if u try this i would be interested to see how u go.

cheers!!!