Pharmacokinetics of methysergide and its metabolite methylergometrine in man.

Five healthy men were given 1.0 mg methysergide maleate intravenously and 2.7 mg methysergide maleate orally in a cross-over study. The systemic availability of methysergide was only 13%, most probably due to a high degree of first-pass metabolism to methylergometrine. We also found evidence of extrahepatic clearance of methysergide. After oral administration the plasma concentrations of the metabolite were considerably higher than those of the parent drug and the area under the plasma concentration curve (AUC) for methylergometrine was more than ten times greater than for methysergide. Our findings may be relevant to the treatment of migraine if methylergometrine contributes to the effect of methysergide. Methylergometrine had a significantly longer elimination half-life than methysergide (223 +/- 43 min vs 62.0 +/- 8.3 min and 174 +/- 35 min vs 44.8 +/- 8.1 min in the oral and intravenous studies respectively).