The deprenyl buy (Selegiline, R-optical enantiomer of selegiline) is an irreversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase B and is used to treat Parkinson’s disease. It increases the availability of dopamine in the brain and delays the time when levodopa is required. It is also used to control depression in combination with other drugs.
Understanding Deprenyl
It was first suggested in 1985 that deprenyl might slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease when Austrian researcher, W. Birkmayer, showed that patients treated with both L-Dopa and deprenyl lived 30% longer than those treated with only L-Dopa in a retrospective study. Later, a large multi-center trial in England reported that the addition of deprenyl to standard L-Dopa therapy delayed the requirement for additional therapy and improved quality of life.
Another concern that has been raised about the British study is that there was a very high dropout rate, which could have skewed the results. In fact, the drop out rates were very similar for both groups; a number of patients were lost to follow-up, violated the protocol, had their diagnoses revised or suffered serious adverse reactions.
The other important point about the British study is that the researchers were unable to explain the apparent increased mortality in the group receiving deprenyl/L-Dopa and the control group of patients who received standard L-Dopa only. The authors suggest that the increase in death might be caused by the combined treatment, but the data they present do not support this.
