Word: mao
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They were right. Iproniazid is what is known as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAO). In the brain, scientists have subsequently learned, monoamine oxidase's job is to destroy leftover neurotransmitters that are floating around loose after they have done their work. By inhibiting the action of monoamine oxidase, drugs like iproniazid let neurotransmitters circulate and keep stimulating neurons longer than they normally would. An extended soaking in serotonin and norepinephrine evidently made for a happier patient, and MAO inhibitors became the first antidepressants...
...imipramine, first of the so-called tricyclic antidepressants. At the time no one had any idea why these medicines worked. Researchers have since learned that they keep excess serotonin and other neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed into the nerve cells they originally came from: same extended neurotransmitter bath as the MAO inhibitors, different mechanism...
...serotonin trail led scientists down a number of other interesting paths as well. One involved LSD: clinicians discovered that people on MAO inhibitors were much less sensitive to the drug than normal. The consensus is that LSD mimics serotonin in the brain and latches onto the same neuronal receptors. With MAO inhibitors keeping more serotonin in circulation, the acid cannot elbow...
...DeLillo's 10th novel, Mao II, features a famously reclusive author named Bill Gray who finally goes public, with unhappy consequences. Now DeLillo, not a recluse but visibly wary in the presence of cameras and interviewers, stands braced to face a lot of both during a seven-city tour to promote his new novel, Underworld (Scribner; 827 pages; $27.50). "My publisher has worked very hard on this book," he says, explaining his willingness to go on the road. "I do feel I'm entering some self-replicating white space, where the distinction between working and living has been erased." Reminded...
...leather-bound volumes printed in acid-free ink and stored in the glass cases at Bob Slate's. Worshipped like prayer books and handled like the latest edition of Playboy to hit the men's locker room, complex planners are as common among students as red books in Mao's China...