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TissueReligion  1yr ago (slatestarcodex.com)   2021 thread views

Thoughts 8 years later on the SSC article on russian psychopharmacology?

slatestarcodex.com

The nootropics spaces online (notably /r/nootropics, among others) contain references to compounds like semax or noopept which seem to have unclear support from the literature, or in the case of semax have hundreds of studies from russian labs, and only a single one from a western lab (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00707).

After having little success with the headache meds my doctors have been prescribing me, I was thinking of trying some of these compounds. I was curious what your guys' thoughts are on these compounds. Is there a good reason they haven't been studied much in the west yet, or is it just inertia?

Open to any thoughts.

Thanks.

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I have studied all anxyolitics, there are many effective alternative with no/low tolerance.

Based on the scientific evidence, I would strongly recommend opipramol or Etifoxine + TUDCA (beware CYP interactions, can be lethal)

Note: I haven't tried many anxiolytics myself but I have used glycine for sleep and I must say it makes me feel calm and nice/soft.

So about tofisopam, I have tried it on myself for 2 weeks (a bit too short, the studies show peak results at 3-4 weeks iirc)

Firstly I am not depressed. I can have mild social anxiety with some people. I can be a bit hypoactive or have slightly chronic fatigue or high sensitivity to sleep deprivation.

I am not anhedonic but I am less hedonic than I wish to be.

I have ADHD PI untreated.

I don't know what I hoped out of tofisopam, I'm not the main audience, especially for depression.

For the social anxiety it might have helped me but not enough experience with it at parties. If it helped it was inconsistent or ambiguous because I sometimes mixed it with bromantane (another dopaminergic and anxyolitic).

So what did it do?

the first day I felt a slight increase in heart contractility which is consistent with theoretical models

I didn't felt it the other days, probably homeostasis doing its work

at the upper range of the daily dose it felt slightly weird

Like I knew I was on something.

Subtle but a bit dirty.

Less dirty than high dose bromantane though.

At low-mid dose I didn't felt it.

That's notable since few drugs can be felt.

It might have helped me with ADHD in theory (dopa) but I did not feel an improvement. Nothing like e.g. 2fma

It might have had a Nootropic effect, lots of promising research on PDEs about this however I did not feel smarter however I consider myself a very high performer and did not design a benchmark.

It might have helped me with SAD (the most likely) but not enough data yet, I'll try again one day eventually. Especially as a potential augmentation to stimulants.

Yeah my personal report is quite useless but I hope it allows to bring some nuance that tofisopam does not do nothing per se, as in it is not homeopathy.

One theory I have to explain the reported discrepancy online would be that most of the lab rat(ionalist)s do not actually suffer from clinical GAD or depression.

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