Hi. I'm Covalencies, or C, for short. I've just recently (last 2 months or so) started dabbling in nootropics, and thought I'd give some feedback on a handful of compounds I've tried and the effects that they have, or haven't, had on me. I noticed that the structure of the board leans toward keeping reviews/experiences in the main thread for each compound. This is a great approach to tracking average experiences with a particular nootropic, but not so great for identifying trends driven by individual differences. Given the high degree of variablity in response to nootropics (and other compounds covered on the boards) seen in the wild, it seems like some it might be helpful to have a collection of reports where each report covers a single user's response to a number of compounds. So, without further ado, here's my report.
(Oh. Note. I do list the vendor I used for each compound, but make no judgements about any of them. Only there for reference.)
User background:
Stats: ~30, M, 165lbs, 6' 1''
Profession: Software Architect
Medical: Diagnosed ADHD, MDD, neck pain NOS, otherwise no problems
Diet: Mostly vegetarian (sushi yes, cooked fish no, meat a few times a year, eggs okay, dairy okay)
Daily stack:
Mixed Amp Salts 45mg (ADHD)
Fluoxetine 20mg (MDD, Anxiolytic against Amp Salts)
Kratom 1.3g (Neck pain, adjunct to to physical therapy exercises and streching)
Bacopa 250mg, 45% Bacosides (Nootropic)
Stack note: I've been on the adderal for 5-6 years, with few breaks, so this should not be weighted too heavily as a variable. Fluoxetine is around 10 months, Kratom around 7 months.
Baseline Cambridge Brain Science : (first, top, last, performance rating)
Monkey Ladder - 7, 9, 9, 65% (first was 8, next three were 7)
Spatial Span - 6, 7, 7, 50%
Digit Span - 6, 9, 8, 87%
Paired Associates- 7, 7, 7, 59% (one trial)
Grammatical Reasoning - 24, 29, 29, 89%
Double Trouble - 36, 36, 36, 57% (one trial)
Object Reasoning - 20, 20, 20, 50% (one trial)
Odd One Out - 9, 18, 18, 62% (second trial 14)
Rotations - 144, 170, 157, 99%
Feature Match - 135, 161, 161, 64%
Polygons - 14, 78, 42, 86% (what was I taking on the day I scored 78?)
Spatial Search 6, 11, 11, 88% (max score w/ Modafinil)
Hampshire Tree Task 10, 51, 51, 99% (second trial 30, max score Nicotine)
Spatial Slider 52, 78, 78, 50%
Lumosity baseline, March 2012: 1207
Lumosity max, March 2012: 1375
(No use between then and July 2014)
Lumosity baseline, July 2014: 1375
Lumosity max, begin August 2014: 1380
Lumosity max, begin September 2014: 1469
Lumosity max, current: 1489
Format is: Compoud - Supplier, subjective rating (1-10), objective rating (where available), dosage (or dosage), notes
Bacopa - ND
Subjective Rating: 9
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration: ~2 months (July 2014 to current)
Dosage: 250mg, 45% Bacosides
Notes:
My research partner and I both noted subjective improvements in memory, particularly for older memories. Very strange to start remembering things from 10-15 years ago; books, movies, music all came to mind. Day to day I can't say I notice any effect, but over the last 2 months, my memory performance on Lumosity has been climbing. Then again, that could be due to the way Lumosity is set up, learning the games, or one of the other compounds.
A recent(ish?) paper on Bacopa (that I've misplaced) states that they found a significant measureable effect on choice decision time detectable within a short time following administration. Will have to test on something that gives me reaction time information and accuracy with and without Bacopa.
Action:
Continue, maybe try 500mg.
Coluracetam - ND
Subjective Rating: 2
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration: 2 weeks
Dosage:
5mg qd,
10mg qd, 20mg qd, 30mg qd,
10mg bid, 20mg bid, 30mg bid,
10mg tid, 20mg tid, 30mg tid
Notes:
No good objective data for this, sorry. Research partner and self report high degree of irritability at any dosage. Slight color enhancement the first day or two, but nothing after that. Subjective improvement in small motor performance noted while typing. I reallly wish I had thought to measure that while I had some. No objective improvements on any measure, no subjective improvements on anything other than small motor skill. Possible exacerbation of depressive symptoms, but I can't tell if that was related to a non-functioning batch of fluoxetine, the coluracetam, or something else.
Action:
None. Banned from further testing by my research partner on account of irritability.
PRL-8-53 - NSN
Subjective Rating: 5?
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
1 week alone,
1 week + Fasoracetam,
2-3 days + Noopept,
1-2 days + Fasoracetam + Noopept
Dosage:
5mg qd, 10mg qd, 20mg qd
5mg bid, 10mg bid
5mg + 10mg Faso qd (bedtime)
5mg + 15mg Faso qd (bedtime)
10mg + 10mg Faso qd (bedtime)
Notes:
I really have to come back to this one. At the time I only noticed three things about PRL. One, it makes your tongue go numb. Two, it appears to stop bleeding quite quickly (I cut my mouth as I was taking it one day, and it only bled for a few seconds after the PRL hit it). Three, Fasoracetam + PRL results in being abruptly ready for sleep. Looking back at my scores and the time periods for various compounds, it looks like scores improved more quickly around the same time as the PRL was under test. It might be worth ordering a gram and investigating more carefully the effects.
Action:
Re-order, take better notes. I'd like to plan more careful single-subject experiments, but that's so time consuming. Will have to think about it.
Fasoracetam - NSN
Subjective Rating: 1
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
1 week alone,
1 week + PRL,
2-3 days + Noopept,
2 days + Choline
Dosage:
5mg qd, 10mg qd, 20mg qd, 50mg qd, 100mg qd
20mg bid
Note:
I don't have a lot to say about Fasoracetam. Like Coluracetam, it made me extremely irritable. Unlike Coluracetam, it didn't do anything except make me really, really sleepy. After testing at lower dosages, moved to the study dose (either 90mg or 100mg, the latter iirc). Took 100mg at around 830am, got very sleepy, very quickly, and fell asleep for another 6-7 hours. Needless to say, this was not a productive experience.
Faso's ability to rapidly induce naptime, especially in convert with PRL, did come in handy when trying to fall asleep at 4am with mind wound too tightly from work stuff, so I guess it's okay in that regard.
Tried choline to reduce the irritability, but to no avail. Still at least 2 out of 7 dwarves.
Action:
None. Banned due to irritablity, and no useful/interesting effects to make the tradeoff potentially worth it.
Noopept - NSN
Subjective Rating: 1
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
3+ weeks alone,
1 week + PRL 5mg,
1 week + Fasoracetam ??mg
1-2 days + Modafinil 100mg, 200mg
2 days + Nicotine 4mg
Dosage:
5mg qd, 10mg qd, 20mg qd, 50mg qd, 100mg qd
Notes:
I've now taken Noopept on its own, as well as with: Nicotine, PRL, Fasoracetam, SORM, ORPA, HCBT, Modafinil, and Guanfacine.
It's been about 2 months since I started experimenting with it, and I still can't tell if it does anything useful. It caused some of the short-term memory issues reported by other posters during the first few trials, but nothing of note since then. It doesn't feel like anything when taken alone, when mixed with other things, or when stopped.
On the bright side, it doesn't seem to have caused an problems either. That's good.
Action:
None. Still have more than half(ish) of the first 5g order, but will probably stop taking it to eliminate a source potential interactions in the future. Well, that and because I'm not convinced that it does anything at all.
SORM-OX - TLR
Subjective Rating: 8
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
7 days, as needed
Dosage:
80mg qd
150mg qd,
150mg bid,
200mg qd,
300mg qd,
200mg bid
Notes:
One of TLR's unlabeled optimized extracts. I talked to them via email before ordering, and decided that they seemed unlikely to send me anything dangerous, so I might as well go ahead. The compound was stated to be a low-tolerance analgesic with minimal side-effects. The SORM powder looks, tastes, and smells a bit like kratom, but the effects it generates are unlike kratom.
Sort of. At 80mg, in a user tolerant to 1.3g kratom, it doesn't do much. Light analgesia, but in a strange not-very-painkillerish way; the pain just sort of subsides. Like very strong tylenol or asprin, maybe. At 150mg, it does the same thing qualitatively, but with better effect. 300mg likewise... except. Except... it starts to feel a little more familiar at that point. Long story short, if you need an analgesic that doesn't leave you feeling stoned at higher doses, you could do considerably worse.
My only qualm with it is that it leaves me a little fuzzier than I would like. Not bad. I'll still stick with kratom most of the time though.
Action:
None.
ORPA-OX - TLR
Subjective Rating: ?
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
4 days
Dosage:
100mg,
200mg + 100mg @ T+3h
Notes:
Another structureless TLR compound. Somebody has to try this stuff after all. This is a very mild analgesic, with some really interesting characteristics. I didn't give it a rating, since I don't know what to think of it. It's not a very good analgesic, though slightly stronger than anything OTC... however, it does have some really positive effects on affect. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it makes you feel sort of generally lovey-dovey towards the world. Not in a stoned kind of way, but more like a feel of 'everything is well.' I've never taken anything quite like it.
The reason I didn't bother to rate it is because, while it has a nice mood-boosting, flower-power, lovey-dovey kind of feeling to it, I can't imagine what I would use it for. The dose over 200mg wasn't useful, and while it didn't have any real side-effects per se, the core effects of analgesia and hippiness didn't scale either. Would probably make one a bit nauseous at anything higher than 2-300mg.
Action:
None.
HCBT-OX - TLR
Subjective Rating: 1
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
3 days
Dosage:
30mg bid, per recommendation
Notes:
Ugh. Not my thing. TLR has been mentioned that this is related to Withinia/Ashwagandha, and, if the reports of Ash causing extreme fatigue for some indviduals are correct, I'd be inclined to say this is definitely Ash or Ash-related. Is it anxiolytic? Yes. Is it pleasant? No. The only comparison I can give is from when I was prescribed Lithium for what later turned out not to be bipolar II... it's like a straightjacket for your brain. You're not worried about anything, but that's only because you just don't give a shit. Pardon my language. If you don't have a problem with Ashwagandha, then you might not have a problem with this. Otherwise... don't bother.
Action:
None.
HDAC-OX - TLR
Subjective Rating: ?
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
2 days
Dosage:
100mg qd
Notes:
It's an HDAC inhibitor of some kind. No immediate effects to speak of, and no idea if it did anything that might be useful in the longer term. Then again, if it's a strong HDAC, based on the reports about Trichostatin A, 'longer term' should not be a thing unless you want to see some truly nasty side effects. In theory, you might be able to use this short term to increase the effect of some other epigenetic agent... Or not. No idea. Didn't take it long enough to notice anything happen, and am not particularly interested in doing so. It doesn't seem to have done anytihng harmful. That's all I can say about it.
Action:
None.
Isoxazole-9 -TLR
Subjective Rating: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Objective Rating: N/A
Duration:
1 day
Dosage:
100mg qd
Notes:
What. The. Hell. I have to take another shot at this. No immediate effect, but woke up the next day and it felt like my mind had literally expanded somehow. Time course of action is in line with the studies on rat brains; no integration of marker compounds in neurons for rats killed at T + 1h, but definite effect by T + 6h or greater. This is the only thing I've taken so far that feels like it has the potential to improve the performance of my visuospatial sketchpad. I'd have tested it more than once, but, um, mistakes were made, and now I don't have any. (For the record, this was not a dosage error, I just accidentally threw out the package.)
I will definitely be coming back to this.
Notes:
Wow. Need to order more and try again.
Also, don't try this at home kids. There's not a lot of data on it. I definitely wouldn't take it for more than a few days.
Okay... out of time for now, work to be done. Will leave you with a few summaries, and come back later to clean stuff up.
Modafinil -
Mixed feelings. Alternately had no effect, woke me up, made me cloudy, or boosted my working memory enough to improve my best score on the spatial search task at Cam Brain Science by 2 points, from 9 to 11. Still not amazing scores, but considering how long I spent plateu'd at 8-9, pretty interesting. Still don't know what to think.
Mixed Amphetamine Salts - RX
It's adderall. Not much else to say. It's got its problems. It's also made an enormous difference in my life. Just wish I had started it earlier than my mid-twenties.
Fluoxetine - RX
Prozac is my friend. No side effects at all for me, no noticeable withdrawl effects. Improved mood, better stress resistence, less anxious. Simple but good.
Guanfacine - RX
Eh. Jury is out on this one. Tried it at a few doses from 250mcg (approx 1/4 tablet) to 2mg (2 tablets). The lower end doesn't do much. The higher end is what was used in studies, but... well... let's just say that if I'm asleep, or if I keep having to sit down because of low blood pressure and dizziness, it really doesn't matter if I can remember an extra digit or two.
Nicotine - Walmart
Still in testing. Dosing at approximately 1mg/2-3 hours. Former smoker, but so far no cravings or other nastiness. We'll see how it goes.
Join us next month for (tentatively):
ISX-9 part 2
IDRA-21
PRL-8-53 redux
Unifiram
And... a more scientific approach to all of this. Looking over my notes and write-up, I am displeased by the lack of useful objective data. Blinding oneself is a pain, but I may have to try anyway... I would really like to fill out the objective data section for anything in the next write up....
