To continue our discussion of the racetam family, we now turn our attention to Aniracetam. Known in the nootropics community as “piracetam, but with more oomph,” aniracetam boasts a bevy or neurological benefits beyond the anti-anxiety properties common to racetams.
How does this memory-boosting, mood-lifting molecule work? Let’s take a look.
What is Aniracetam?
Aniracetam is a synthetic nootropic first created in the 1970s in the labs of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. If you’ve followed our blog series on racetams, you’ll know that this family of nootropics works to improve cognitive function by ramping up glutamate receptor activity. In other words, racetams help incite receptors for glutamate, our central nervous system’s most ubiquitous neurotransmitter, and powerhouse amino acid, linked to memory formation and learning.
More specifically, aniracetam is a positive allosteric modulator for AMPA receptors, which are transmembrane glutamate receptors that mediate fast synaptic transmission throughout the central nervous system. Aniracetam binds to AMPA receptors, increasing glutamate’s affinity for the AMPA receptors, facilitating increased synaptic messaging. By increasing the likelihood for glutamate-AMPA interaction, aniracetam boosts synaptic activity.
Aniracetam is most often compared against piracetam when users consider adding it to their stack. Generally aniracetam is considered more potent than piracetam, but with similar positive effects on mood and focus.
Benefits of Taking Aniracetam
Aniracetam offers users a range of benefits. Those looking for anxiolysis are drawn to its calming, mildly euphoric effects that make social interaction a breeze. Aniracetam has been shown to have antidepressant effects in rats, can improve judgment by manipulating serotonin and dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex, and can even reverse damage done to memory and learning faculties by traumatic neurological events.
Clinical Trials
In clinical trials, aniracetam has shown promising therapeutic effects on patients with senile dementia and Alzheimer’s, and is being examined as a possible treatment for these conditions. In a yearlong study, elderly patients, showing mild signs of cognitive impairment, showed significant improvement in mood, emotional stability, and cognitive function after being treated with aniracetam. While animal studies have not yet replicated these results, more research is needed to further investigate aniracetam’s psychological anti-aging properties.
Because of its amplifying effects on the AMPA receptor, Aniracetam may also reverse certain neurological symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). In rat studies, this nootropic helped subjects become “good learners” in avoidance tasks, while reducing their anxiety to further improve performance.
What Users Say
Reddit’s active nootropic community includes more than a handful of die-hard aniracetam fans. These online disciples tout its anxiolytic effects, its capacity for increasing focus on otherwise overwhelming tasks at work, and an increased vocabulary and reading speed after dosing. Many users feel that it helps inspire a deeper interest in the task at hand, making work feel less taxing.
Negative Effects
Aniracetam appears to be safe, even at higher dosages, and is not associated with serious side effects; though it may interact with medications like anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, and opioids.
Users often report vivid dreams after dosing with aniracetam. Whether this is a positive, or negative effect, is up to the individual user. To reduce your chances of inducing overactive dreams, avoid dosing close to bedtime.
Tolerance
While there is no clinically supported evidence of chemical addiction, or tolerance to aniracetam over time, users report mixed anecdotal evidence of weakened responses, after weeks of daily use. Users advise others to dose only every other day, or to take tolerance breaks, by ceasing dosage of aniracetam for a few weeks before resuming.
Dosage and How to Take Aniracetam
The commonly recommended dose for aniracetam is 1500mg per day, taken in two to three smaller doses throughout the day, to maximize efficacy, and mitigate the risk of interaction with other substances in users taking prescribed medications, or stacking supplements. While this may seem high, some users report positive effects at doses lower than 500mg/day, and still others take over 2g/day to maximize its benefits. Users are advised to experiment within the general boundary of 1500mg/day to determine their best dose. As always, consult with your doctor before starting any new supplement, to ensure against interactions with other medications, or ailments.
Where to Buy
Aniracetam can be purchased without a prescription in the United States, and is widely available from online nootropics vendors. It is sold in both powder and capsule form, with vegan cellulose capsules available for cruelty-free shoppers.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products discussed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.