Posted 06 April 2004 - 03:40 PM
The only real practical way to mimic the effects of amphetamine is to use analouges of the chemcial. Amphetamine belongs to a class of drugs called phenethylamines, which have various structural relatives including phentermine and selegiline. The latter is devoid of the catecholamine releasing effect, and in my experience feels absolutely nothing like adderall or any of the other amphetamine salts. I have never tried Phentermine, which is an anoretic drug, meaning it is used to help people loose weight. This drug does have catecholamine releasing effects, and therefore also has a contraindication for people with heart conditions. Another drug which is not a structural relative of amphetamine, but produces amphetamine-like effects, is the scarcely availible tricyclic antidepressant Amineptine. This drug has a high affinity for inhibiting the re-uptake of dopamine, and at higher doses promotes dopamine release. It was pulled off the market some time ago, which was in my opinion unwarranted, and drove it into the grey market. There is of course Adrafinil/Modafinil, which are classified as psychostimulants and are alpha-1 receptor agonists. Both of these drugs are reported to increase alertness and vigilance. I have only tried Adrafinil, which I find to give a transient feeling of wakefulness and mild stimulation of productive tendencies.
I emphasize transient as a theme here, because with amphetamines you take them and an hour later BAM! you feel the pleasant effects without a doubt, there is no question in your mind as to whether they are working or not. With smart drugs there is no slap in the face onset of action, I've never sat there studying thinking "Oh man, this Piracetam is really, really working." I think nootropics are fairly "soft drugs", in that they sometimes work, but the effects are not immediately strong enough to notice a difference. In other words, you can't just take Piracetam and sit around and watch TV and expect to feel mentally stimulated or motivated. Whereas with "hard drugs" such as amphetamines, if you pop 30 mg and sit around for a while, all of a sudden a while later your up and cleaning or doing whatever. There is a drastic shift in your state of consciousness with amphetamines, but with smart drugs, the effects are not drastic nor immediate.
Anyway, I don't believe there is any smart drug/nootropic which mimics the effects of amphetamines. I wish their were a drug like amphetamine that was similar in safety profile to nootropics, but unfourtunately there has been no such development in pharmacology to my knowledge.