PHENELZINE SULFATE

📋 Quick facts

Description: PHENELZINE SULFATE — PHENELZINE SULFATE. Formula: C8H14N2O4S. MW: 234.28. IUPAC: 2-phenylethylhydrazine;sulfuric acid.

Quick Facts:

• Category: other
• Also Known As: Phenelzine sulfate, Phenelzine

Proven Benefits At A Glance:

• Phenelzine sulfate is a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor — a class of medication that works by affecting specific brain chemistry
• Research shows it has been studied for treating certain mood and anxiety conditions
• How your body responds to phenelzine appears linked to how much the drug inhibits MAO in your blood platelets
• This is a prescription medication with established clinical uses — not a skincare ingredient

⚗️ Chemical Overview

Phenelzine sulfate is an organic molecular entity. Phenelzine Sulfate is a hydrazine derivative and a potent non-selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor with anxiolytic and antidepressant properties. Phenelzine sulfate irreversibly binds to MAO, thereby blocking the oxidative deamination of monoamines resulting in an increased concentration of biogenic amines and a concurrent decrease in catabolism of monoamine neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and serotonin, in the brain. In addition, through its primary metabolite phenylethylidenehyrazine (PEH), phenelzine causes elevated GABA levels in the caudate-putamen and nucleus accumbens thereby exerting its anxiolytic effects. See also: Phenelzine (has active moiety).

Source(s): ChEBI, NCI Thesaurus (NCIt), PubChem, via PubChem

📊 Comedogenicity

🛡️ Safety rating

Safety tier is a starting heuristic from regulatory status and comedogenic rating, not a dermatological verdict — see our Terms for the full disclaimer. Research confidence reflects how many real cited studies back this ingredient, not the strength of their findings.

🌍 Regulatory Status

💧 Skin Type Compatibility

⚠️ Don’t Combine With

📚 Research & Evidence

🔬 The Science

We need to be direct here: phenelzine sulfate is not actually a skincare ingredient. It’s a psychiatric medication studied for internal use, not topical application on skin. The research available focuses entirely on its pharmacological effects when taken as a drug to treat mood and anxiety disorders — not on any benefits for skin health or appearance. According to Arch Gen Psychiatry (1978), phenelzine is an MAO inhibitor, meaning it works by affecting enzymes that break down certain neurotransmitters in the brain. The same source notes that clinical response to the drug correlates with how thoroughly it inhibits MAO activity in blood platelets, and that higher inhibition at the two-week mark predicted better outcomes after six weeks of treatment.

The research establishes phenelzine’s role in psychiatry, not dermatology. If you’re seeing phenelzine sulfate marketed as a skincare product, that would be unusual and potentially misleading — the scientific literature simply doesn’t address topical skincare applications for this compound. Any skincare claims would lack the research support required to substantiate them.

📄 Related Research

Matched by search — not necessarily verified support for every statement above.

• Robinson DS et al. (1978). Clinical pharmacology of phenelzine. Arch Gen Psychiatry.

🧴 Products Containing PHENELZINE SULFATE