I've seen some recent threads pop up here on longecity about people who have taken pramiracetam and I just want to provide an update on my situation as I really hope that what happened to me won't happen to anyone else. I took pramiracetam 4 years ago and I still have what seems to be significant brain damage that severely affects the quality of my life. While I remain optimistic that one day I will be able to fix it, everyday I struggle to continue to fight. I'll share a PM that I wrote someone last year who was contemplating taking it and unsure about it's safety:
Hi ---------,
Thanks for the message. Unfortunately I still struggle with major neurological issues from that incident. Most days I can't focus for more than 20 minutes at a time without experiencing a severe scrambling of my thoughts in addition to headache and nausea. I've seen over 20 different neurologists/psychiatrists and had several MRIs in addition to an MRA (angiogram) and EEG, all of which has not provided any more insight into my problem. The main problems that I have are:
-Severely impaired logical reasoning, comprehension, and working memory abilities. Oddly these functions are better when I write or talk.
-A persistent scrambling/fragmentation of my thoughts that makes my thoughts extremely shallow and jumpy. I can never think deeply about anything. This scrambling gets worse when I try to complete an analytical task and after trying to focus for 20 to 30 min, it gets bad enough to where I get a headache and get nauseous.
-Difficulty remembering/recalling previous actions and days. My long term memory has gotten progressively worse (probably as a result of impaired short-term memory).
-Difficulty planning
-Susceptibility to extreme stress from minor stressful situations. The elevated stress hormones seem to last for days. My recall and short-term memory are almost non-existent in these situations.
-Susceptibility to depression, psychotic thoughts, and extreme feelings of love. Difficulty attenuating emotional responses.
-Manic episodes that arise every once and a while from thinking too much about my situation and feeling like I am trapped in a mental prison.
As far as coming to a conclusion about what happened neurologically to me, I haven't been able to come to any definite conclusion due to a lack of available diagnostic technologies. I can only make hypotheses based on my symptoms and the studies that are available about pramiracetam. My hypothesis is that I caused damage to various areas of my cerebral cortex, with the most noticeable damage being to my left prefrontal cortex in the area responsible for logical, sequential thought (this would explain the thought scrambling and scattered/ADD component of my issues). As far as how pramiracetam caused this, I don't know. There is only a limited amount of information about it on pubmed and its mechanisms of actions remain largely unknown. Increased NO is certainly a candidate. Based on the reaction I had to it, it seems possible that it caused damage via excitotoxicity due to the scatteredness and overactivity that I seemed to be left with. Even now, three years later, the more I focus on something the faster and more scattered my thoughts become until I get nausea and a severe headache. This seems to indicate a prefrontal cortex overactivity to me, with the headache being from increased bloodflow and the nausea perhaps being from inflammation. But its hard to say.
I don't mean to sound dramatic, but taking pramiracetam/choline completely ruined my life. Before taking it, I graduated from a top university with a BS in Electrical Engineering with magna cum laude honors. I was working at a Defense Contractor doing electrical engineering while getting my Masters in Nanotechnology when this incident occurred. I was forced to quit my job as a result of the neurological issues that stemmed from taking these drugs and now I work in construction. It has been almost three years now since the incident and I have tried over 80 different supplements/drugs in an attempt to fix these issues. I have found some things that help significantly; bacopa seems to help significantly in conjunction with high levels of thyroid hormones (which can be obtained by taking ashwagandha and bacopa together). But the side effects (some potentially life-threatening) prevent it from being a long term solution. I have found other things that help, but nothing that brings me even close to the clarity, depth, and breadth of thoughts that I had before. I remain optimistic nonetheless that one day I will be able to fix these issues and continue to hunt everyday for the solution. In the meantime, I try to enjoy the things I can do; physical activities and social interactions always seem to help.
Are you considering taking pramiracetam or have you taken it? My opinion (undoubtedly biased based on my experiences) is that there isn't enough information available on it to have any reasonable assurance of safety. And if you take it and it seems to open new mental doors for you (which it actually did for me a few times in college when I took it in smaller amounts), what will happen if you continue to take it? The studies are lacking and there are many other nootropics out there with more demonstrated efficacy and safety. But, of course, you are free to do as you wish and your mileage may vary. Please feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
Best Wishes,
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LongeCity
