Posted 21 October 2005 - 10:57 PM
It's really tough to get an objective measure. I've observed it is a lot easier to notice the effects in the absence of the substance (like when you cycle off or stop for any other reason) than to see any objective yardstick of cognitive ability.
For instance, I ran out of capped aniracetam (the first racetam I tried). While waiting for my bulk powder to arrive, I noticed that the verbal fluency I had been enjoying for 5-6 weeks seemed to have dropped off somewhat. I observed myself spending more time searching for the right word when two weeks before the right word rolled off my lips with minimal latency. Once I resumed my aniracetam regimen, the verbal fluency returned within a couple of days.
I've noticed this type of process with piracetam, with vinpocetine, and with deprenyl. Less so with pyritinol, picamilon, centrophenoxine.
I think the key is to avoid judging effects based on short time periods, and to validate your observations with cycling off. Also, it is impossible in my experience to detect effects from many nootropics at once.
I look at it like exercise. Years ago I started exercising regularly. I did not feel any positive effects right away. It took a month before I experienced any endorphin high. But once time had passed, and especially when I stopped for a time, it was more noticeable.
To your point, maybe it's all subjective and thus an illusion. Maybe it's the biggest placebo effect I've ever experienced. I haven't done any IQ testing before and after. I'm not even sure there are tests available that could end the argument. Utlimately, it doesn't matter since I see undeniable positive effects in almost every area of my life connected with cognitive abilities. The effects are objective, the causes are speculative. The only substantial change was starting to experiment with nootropics a year ago.
Having lived for 48 years, I've never seen a change this big in a year's time.