The meeting of minds and times with Peter Riederer: an appreciation

Abstract

It is fair to say that if I had not received a phone call at Oxford University from Prof. Merton Sandier in summer of 1973, that a young chap by the name of Peter Riederer, from Prof. Walter Birkmayer Department, was in London and wanted to discuss some aspects of monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors for Parkinson’s disease (PD), I probably would not be where I am today. If there were two contrasting people, that were us. Here was this large but soft spoken, rather gentle and austere Viennese, meeting a small rather assertive individual from Iran. It was meeting of the minds and an instant connection that has lasted some 34 years, with a result of some near one hundred joint publications, some 25 books and hopefully advancing the prospect for treatment of PD. Peter wanted to know was there an MAO inhibitor that did not cause a “Cheese Reaction”, a side effect of first generation of non-selective MAO inhibitors, that could be employed in the treatment of PD. In 1961 Birkmayer and colleagues had used MAO inhibitors to treat PD, gastrointestinal and blood pressure problems in such patients was a limiting factor.