This will be a recurring segment where we try to garner a little bit of personal information about our guests, to give listeners a window into who the person behind the professional title is. Here, Ken talks about his experience with religion and his upbringing, as well as his role in launching 'the last advertisement for Tranylcypromine,' an MAOI medication. Hope you enjoyed this series on Antidepressants - Going Backwards.
Ethan: After our recording, we realized we didn't provide enough additional information about where to find Dr. Gillman's work and how to contact him with questions. You can find all of this information, as well as additional resources about MonoAmine Oxidase Inhibitors, or MAOIs, on his website, Psychotropical.com. That's P-S-Y-C-H-O-T-R-O-P-I-C-A-L.com. Dr. Gillman also has a couple of disclosures. He has equity interests in and is on the advisory board of Neurawell Therapeutics, a company that has a patent for a modified form of Tranylcypromine. Their primary aim is to remarket it, with an extra safety twist by reformulating Tranylcypromine to lessen its side effects and increase the margin of safety in relation to sensitivity to tyramine. His website lists that he has a small $100 share in the company. Additionally, he has received a speaker's fee from the Flemish Psychiatric Association, which was donated to a charitable trust for MAOI research.
Keep listening to hear the last couple anecdotes about Ken's experiences going to an Anglican school in the UK and his upbringing, as well as claiming responsibility for the last advertisement of Tranylcypromine, brand named drug, Parnate. Enjoy. And thanks again to Ken for spending the time to educate the public on such important healthcare topics.
Ethan: I think I'm just lucky to have a healthy degree of skepticism that I've always held pretty close to me.
Ken: Let me tell you how far back my skepticism goes, Ethan. The fancy private school I went to in the UK, an Anglican school, as you probably know the Anglican religion in the UK isn't a religion, it's a social institution, but we still had to do what was called Confirmation. And my vague memory of these things is that this was when you became what was supposed to be of an age to make decisions about these things that you reaffirmed your belief in the tenets of the church that were put on your head when you were christened with your godparents and all that shit. And you had to attend Confirmation classes. I think this was when we were 12 years old. So the Bishop came down. We had a church chapel that was part of the school. It was lovely. They wouldn't let me sing; I had such a terrible voice. They used to make me promise not to sing. So I struck a bargain with them. If they didn't insist I kneeled, then I wouldn't sing. So I refused to kneel in church, and in the Confirmation classes, I got to about the third Confirmation class and the fellow running the classes was so sick of the difficult questions I asked that he told the Headmaster that I wasn't to attend anymore classes. So they gave up on trying with me.
Charlie is reminding me in a message he sent, going right back to my days teaching the MRC site course in London. I used to answer the question, ‘Which is the best antidepressant,’ by saying, ‘Amitriptyline is petrol. Clomipramine is aviation fuel, and Parnate is rocket fuel.’ And I must add here, for those who haven't seen it, the last advertisement for Tranylcypromine/Parnate that was ever put in a journal back in the late ‘80s or whatever was basically down to me. The advert in my youth was an Air-sea rescue helicopter lifting somebody out of the sea with the caption Parnate for the powerful lift. I didn't go to many conferences, partly cause I didn't get invited because I asked too many difficult questions. But I was talking to the chief fellow for whoever made it in those days. I jokingly said to him, ‘I'm really fancy going for the conference in Paris next month. Would, you guys like to take me? I'll tell you what, I'll give you a quid pro quo. I'll tell you how to improve your advertisement for Parnate, if you agree to take me to the conference.’ Gentleman's agreement shake. I said, ‘Simple; You get a picture of the launch of the space shuttle; that's gonna be far better.’ And they did. And the last advert ever for Parnate was a picture of the space shuttle taking off. It was rather a good picture. If I remember rightly, it was against the setting sun, and it had a bird flying across the disc of the sun at the same time. It was really good picture. The other part of the agreement was, and this will tell you how deep my being not influenced by drug companies, when I said that, ‘Obviously, you'll give me a couple of framed copies of it, but without any writing on it. No, nothing. Not your emblem, nothing on it, just the picture. Thank you. And they did, they honored that. And, when I left Southampton to come to Australia the night before I left, somebody stole a picture from my office. I can't say it upset me very much, but yes, so I was responsible for the last advertisement for Parnate. Let that be on the record!