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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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31.01.2013 |
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The calming effect of tamoxifen
Answer: because they inhibit the enzyme protein kinase C in brain cells. As does tamoxifen, a substance that is marketed for its ability to deactivate the sex hormone estradiol and is therefore popular among chemical athletes who notice that the steroids they are using are having oestrogenic side effects.
In the late 1990s the American psychiatrist Joseph Bebchuk discovered that tamoxifen was also capable of fighting manias in people with bipolar disorder. [Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008 Mar; 65(3): 255-63.] Bebchuk's study was small, but since then bigger studies have confirmed his results. One of these was done at Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey. The figure reproduced below comes from this study.
It shows the effect of a hefty course of tamoxifen [the researchers built up the dose over a week to 80 mg per day] on mania, measured using two different methods. The effect is comparable with that of lithium and valproate, the Turks claim in their publication.
In 2008 Brazilian pharmacologists at the Universidade Federal do Parana published the results of an open field study in which they studied the anti-manic effect of tamoxifen. [Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Dec 12; 32(8): 1927-31.] The table below comes from that study.
A dose of 0.5 mg tamoxifen per kg bodyweight doesn't counteract the mental effects of amphetamines, but a dose of 1 mg per kg bodyweight does. If you convert that dose to an adult human weighing 80 kg, you arrive at about 15 mg tamoxifen.
The researchers administered the tamoxifen via an intraperitoneal injection. An oral dose would be about twice as high, so about 30 mg tamoxifen per day.
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