was not a bad theory, except if you actually look at depressed people,
they’re often quite anxious as well, and there is no evidence of an
adrenaline shortage. At least not in the way they were thinking about it
when the theory was first proposed.
In those days, the late 1950s, the idea that chemicals transmitted elec-
trical nerve impulses through the brain was quite radical and not widely
accepted. Several things happened to change this. Partly, it was actual
rocket science.
THE DAWN OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS, HYDRAZINE. After World War II
there was a surplus ofhydrazine,which the Germans had made in huge
quantities to fuel their V-2 rockets. Nobody knew what to do with all that
hydrazine, but lots of people were trying to find uses for the complex,
expensive organic chemical that could be had for almost nothing. Drug
companies discovered that hydrazine could kill tuberculosis bacilli, and
soon developed several hydrazine-based drugs for treating tuberculosis.
Doctors noted that one of these drugs, ipronaizid, seemed to make
depressed patients feel better. Ipronaizid became the first antidepressant.
MONOAMINE OXIDASE INHIBITORS. Researchers thought that iproni-
azid inhibited the action ofmonoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme that
breaks down epinephrine and norepinephrine in the brain. Epinephrine
is another, newer name for adrenaline. To avoid confusion, I call the hor-
mone adrenalinewhen it’s in the body and epinephrinewhen it’s in the
brain. Colloquially, we think of adrenaline as a substance that speeds
things up. It is, but for years nobody knew exactly how it worked. It is actu-
ally a transmitter substance. In the body, it works within various kinds of
muscles. In the brain, it works all over the place, just like serotonin.
MAO breaks down epinephrine and norepinephrine—a related hor-
mone that is more important than epinephrine as a transmitter substance
in the brain. Anything that inhibits monoamine oxidase creates more avail-
able norepinephrine. It may create more dopamine and serotonin as well.
Soon, a class of drugs called monoamine oxidase inhibitors was developed
specifically for treating depression. They are still in use today, but not
widely, because of a troubling side effect: In combination with tyramine,
a chemical found in foods, mainly in cheese and aged meat, MAO
inhibitors can cause death. In fact, this does not pose a problem today, since
152 ❧Explosions into Sadness