Your Piracetam dosage is wrong

Piracetam is a popular nootropic, or “smart drug,” perhaps because it was one of the first substances to be dubbed “nootropic” due to its studied cognitive-enhancing properties. What’s more, it lacks the negative effects of stimulants and methamphetamine analogues like Adderall, Ritalin, and so on. This is the basic definition of a nootropic — a cognitive enhancer with virtually no negative side effects.

In bulk, Piracetam is a nondescript white powder with an extremely bitter flavor, like grapefruit rind on steroids. Personally, I don’t mind the flavor so much, but if you get into Piracetam and you hate the taste, you may want to consider putting them in capsules yourself.

I’m not going to go in-depth on what Piracetam is right now other than that it’s one of the most tried and true smart drugs on the market. It’s widely-available and relatively cheap. I’m just going to explain what dosage you should be taking and why.

Piracetam dosage for newbs

Remember all of that stuff about “loading dosage”? That’s just bullshit they say you can buy more piracetam later.

A lot of nerds on the ‘net like to say you should take loading dosages, add more grams every day, etc. All of that is stupid nonsense, and has no effect on cognition. If anything, it has a negative effect.

The most effective cognitive-boosting dosage for piracetam is 4.8 grams every 8 hours. For a normal person, this is just twice a day, ~10 grams total.

This is based off the findings of the following studies:

Study #1 – Basically finds that 4.8 grams is optimal for cognitive enhancement

These segments were tested for direct effects on brain function of three single doses of piracetam (2.9, 4.8 or 9.6 g) and a placebo given double-blind in balanced order. Piracetam mainly affected the map landscape of the time segments following the triplet’s last digit. U-shaped dose-dependent effects were found; they were strongest after [single doses of] 4.8 g piracetam. Since these particular ERP segments are recognized to be strongly correlated to cognitive functions, the present findings suggest that single medium [4.8 g] doses of piracetam selectively activate differently located or oriented neurons during cognitive steps of information processing.

Study #2 – Basically says 4.8 is optimal for cognitive enhancement. Less is pointless, and 9.6 grams is as effective as taking placebo (a.k.a. diddly squat)

Four treatment levels were used: 2.4, 4.8, 9.6 g piracetam and placebo. Brain electric activity was assessed through Global Dimensional Complexity and Global Omega-Complexity as quantitative measures of the complexity of the trajectory of multichannel EEG in state space. After oral ingestion (1-1.5 h), both measures showed significant decreases from placebo to 2.4 g piracetam. In addition, Global Dimensional Complexity showed a significant return to placebo values at 9.6 g piracetam. The results indicate that a single dose of piracetam dose-dependently affects the spontaneous EEG in normal volunteers, showing effects at the lowest treatment level. The decreased EEG complexity is interpreted as increased cooperativity of brain functional processes.

A couple of the studies (cited in the thread linked below) mention that doses such as the 9.6 grams are necessary for therapeutic benefits, but unless you have Alzheimer’s or another degenerative condition, you don’t need to take that much in a single dose.

Remember, just 4.8 grams!

My excellent references

• [1] Single doses of piracetam affect 42-channel event-related potential microstate maps in a cognitive paradigm.
• [2] Single-dose piracetam effects on global complexity measures of human spontaneous multichannel EEG.
• The forum thread that had all of this information to begin with

A parting note: if you’re state-side and you haven’t tried Piracetam yet, you should get yours here.