Introduced decades ago as the next step in antidepression pills,
monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) soon fell out of favor.
Extremely effective in some people, they caused potentially
lethal blood pressure spikes in others because of interactions
with food in the gut. That and the subsequent rise of selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) put them on a shelf. But a
new skin patch has resurrected the drugs from obscurity. The
patch, Emsam, developed by Somerset Pharmaceuticals and marketed
by Bristol-Myers Squibb, delivers an MAOI, selegiline, directly
and continuously into the bloodstream, eliminating exposure to
the gut and maximizing its effect in the brain. "This is big
news for long-term patient benefit," says Alexander Bodkin,
chief of clinical psychopharmacology research at Harvard
University's McLean Hospital, who was part of the research team.
"Now those who have been untreatable could be safely treated.
This article was originally published with the title Patch Could
Lift Depression.