What are MAO inhibitors?

What are MAO inhibitors?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What are the side effects of Dopamine Receptor Agonists?; What is 'impulse control disorder'? and more...

MAO inhibitors are another form of medication that inhibits an enzyme, mostly in the brain (that's the target for inhibition). These are enzymes that degrade dopamine in the brain, and by inhibiting that set of enzymes, the action of dopamine in the brain can be prolonged. MAO inhibition is used as a model therapy with a modest effect on treating the symptoms of Parkinsons disease, by a medication called rasagiline. There are two of them actually - rasagiline and selegiline - and both these medications can be used as a so-called adjunct or added to levodopa, again to try to prolong the effect of somebody taking levodopa, so that they get a longer action, and less of this fluctuation of symptoms during the course of the day.