chemistry

Medifoxamine

Medifoxamine is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Medifoxamine rather than just read about it. In short: Medifoxamine, previously sold under the brand names Clédial and Gerdaxyl, is an atypical antidepressant with additional anxiolytic properties acting via dopaminergic and serotonergic mechanisms which was formerly marketed in France and Spain, as well as Morocco. The drug was first introduced in France sometime around 1990.

Key takeaways

Medifoxamine belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Medifoxamine to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Medifoxamine from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Medifoxamine, previously sold under the brand names Clédial and Gerdaxyl, is an atypical antidepressant with additional anxiolytic properties acting via dopaminergic and serotonergic mechanisms which was formerly marketed in France and Spain, as well as Morocco. The drug was first introduced in France sometime around 1990. It was withdrawn from the market in 1999 (Morocco) and 2000 (France) following incidences of hepatotoxicity.

Pharmacology

Pharmacodynamics Medifoxamine has been found to act preferentially as a relatively weak dopamine reuptake inhibitor, but also as an even weaker serotonin reuptake inhibitor (IC50 = 1,500 nM) and as a weak antagonist of the 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors (IC50 = 950 nM and 980 nM, respectively; notably weaker affinity relative to amitriptyline and imipramine). It is known to produce two active metabolites during first-pass metabolism in the liver, CRE-10086 (N-methyl-2,2-diphenoxyethylamine) and CRE-10357 (N,N-dimethyl-2-hydroxyphenoxy-2-phenoxyethylamine). The IC50 values of CRE-10086 for serotonin transporter, 5-HT2A, and 5-HT2C binding are 450 nM, 330 nM, and 700 nM, respectively, while those of CRE-10357 are 660 nM, 1,600 nM, and 6,300 M. Medifoxamine and its metabolites lack affinity for other serotonin receptors including 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B, 5-HT1D, and 5-HT3 (>10,000 nM). As medifoxamine is metabolized extensively in the liver during first-pass metabolism, and as these metabolites have as much as 3-fold greater activity relative to medifoxamine, it is likely that they contribute significantly to the pharmacology of the parent drug.

Effectiveness and tolerability Unlike many tricyclic antidepressants, medifoxamine lacks anticholinergic and alpha blocker properties (very low affinity for the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and 10-fold lower affinity for the α1-adrenergic receptor relative to 5-HT2 binding sites), and is also apparently inactive as a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (although the same source stating this also states that it is inactive as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which was subsequently found not to be the case). Studies in mice revealed that the drug does not possess any sedative or locomotor stimulant effects. In accordance with all of the preceding, medifoxamine was found to be well tolerated at dosages of 100–300 mg per day in clinical trials. Double-blind controlled clinical studies have found it to have similar effectiveness to imipramine, clomipramine, and maprotiline in the treatment of depression.

Society and culture

Generic names Medifoxamine is the generic name of the drug and its INNTooltip International Nonproprietary Name while médifoxamine is its DCFTooltip Dénomination Commune Française.

Brand names Medifoxamine was marketed under the brand names Clédial and Gerdaxyl.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Medifoxamine

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Medifoxamine claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Medifoxamine before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Medifoxamine ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Medifoxamine

In research: Medifoxamine appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Medifoxamine in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Medifoxamine is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 5-HT2A antagonists, 5-HT2C antagonists, Antidepressants, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Medifoxamine outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Medifoxamine in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Medifoxamine means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Medifoxamine out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Medifoxamine in simple terms?

Why does Medifoxamine matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Medifoxamine?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Medifoxamine.