A review of piracetam

Piracetam is a nootropic of the racetam class family. Piracetam is mainly used to enhance learning and memory, but many also find it helps with their focus and concentration. It can also increase stamina to allow for a longer study period, enhance mood, verbal fluency, colors, and music. Whether the latter effects are caused by placebo is not known since there have been no clinical trials done to study the effects of Piracetam on humans. There was, however, a clinical trial done for evaluating the efficacy and safety of Piracetam taken for 12 months on subjects suffering from mild cognitive impairment.

Piracetam’s mechanism of action has not been identified, but it is believed to improved the function of acetylcholine on the muscarinic cholinergic receptors. It is also a positive allosteric modulator of the AMPA receptor and may work on the NMDA glutamate receptors as well. Piracetam seems to have little to no effect on dopamine, serotonin, or norepinephrine levels.

My experience with Piracetam

I took 2.4 g of Piracetam everyday in the morning with orange juice and 500 mg of Choline Bitartrate for 6 months. The effects of Piracetam never really hit me and seeing as how the drug has a subtle effect, it did not surprise me. However, the effect of Choline supplementation did hit me and it hit me hard. After about 2 weeks of taking Choline Bitartrate, my mood got worse. My motivation and drive dropped to zero, my mood turned melancholic, and I became very irritable.

On the other hand, my reaction time was faster, my verbal fluency increased,  and my memory improved somewhat.

I later found out that the brain has a balance between the neurotransmitters dopamine and acetylcholine and that increasing one will decrease the other. So by supplementing with Choline, I was disturbing that balance and ultimately, lowering dopamine levels.

Conclusion

In short, my experience with Piracetam was a negative one. Though, I think the reason for that may have been due to the choline I supplemented with. Everyone’s brain is different and so some produce more choline than others. I think I am one of those people and when I supplemented with choline, my brain’s neurotransmitters balance was thrown off.