Ask HN: What have been your experiences using Piracetam?

4 points by burnedouthacker 17 years ago | 4 comments

Recently, I have heard and read some interesting things related to the usage of Piracetam as a cognitive enhancer.

It would prove rather useful to have the opinion of other hackers, whose most important asset lies between their ears.

What have been the benefits/side effects you have experienced? Would you recommend taking it, considering the pros and cons of its consumption? In which doses do you ingest it?

All this in order to make an informed decision about taking it, or not.

hs 17 years ago |

my mom is using it (1200 mg / day, 400 mg each morning, afternoon and evening)

her neurologist prescribed it because my mom got stroke and got clogged artery near neck. she got little oxygen to her brain. the mri shows black areas in her brain.

my uncles (a lot from my mom's family are doctors) describe piracetam as merely vitamin or nootropic, it doesn't cure anything

i'm not sure whether it's safe to completely dismiss piracetam for her. last year her dose was 2400mg/day. after hearing my uncles i decided to reduce it to 1200mg/day and never seeing the neurologist anymore (his prescriptions are mostly vitamins, dha, ala, omega3, etc) because i don't see value in it

anyway so far, nothing bad happened after reduction. it's probably safe to be completely independent from nootropic and using diet + exercise as natural alternative

rjurney 17 years ago |

I took it in college. It made me smarter. No doubt about it. I'd take some and have to run off to the library to lookup things in back issues of journals such was my thirst for knowledge.

It was potentiated like CRAZY by coffee and adderall.

icey 17 years ago |

I took it for a few weeks last year. I didn't notice any more improvements than I'd notice just from being well hydrated.

rms 17 years ago |

I didn't notice anything.