Pandora said:
So, is this phenelzine material a prescription drug? corpus callosum's post sure made it sound like something that would be Scheduled and/or prescription only. You know, something like Schedule III.
Phenelzine is a prescription-only med here in the UK.Its used in depressive illnesses but is certainly not a first (or second)-line agent.The dosage used to treat depression is 15mg 3x/day, increased after 2 weeks to 15mg 4x/day but the dose may be increased to 30mg 3x/day in hospital in-patients; once its alleviated the depression its advisable to reduce the dose to the lowest maintenance dose-which in some can be as little as 15mg on alternate days.
Its list of potential side effects is moderately long:
Postural hypotension, dizziness, insomnia, headache, fatigue, dry mouth, constipation and other GI disturbances, peripheral edema, myoclonic jerks, elevated liver enzymes, agitation, tremor, nervousness, euphoria, cardiac arrythmias, blurred vision, nystagmus, problems passing urine, convulsions, sweating, rashes, bruising, abnormally low white blood cell counts, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and changes in appetite, psychotic episodes, hypomania, confusion, very occasionally hallucinations, jaundice, FATAL hepatocellular necrosis, peripheral neuropathy and neuritis and lastly, electrolyte disturbance such as hyponatremia.
Contraindications include impaired hepatic function and elevated liver enzymes.
This is a pretty serious compound, IMO/E.