Carphedon: frequently asked questions

Carphedon is the original development name of phenylpiracetam — a molecule made by adding a phenyl ring to the 4-position of piracetam, the parent of the racetam family. Its chemistry is fully documented: 2-(2-oxo-4-phenylpyrrolidin-1-yl)acetamide, C12H14N2O2, molecular weight 218.25, CAS 77472-70-9, one stereocentre, sold as the racemate. The World Health Organization’s international nonproprietary name is fonturacetam, and the Russian trade names are Phenotropil and Actitropil. Carphedon, phenylpiracetam, 4-phenylpiracetam, fonturacetam and Phenotropil are the same substance at different points in its naming history.

Yes — one molecule, three eras of naming. The first scientific description in 1983 called it 4-phenylpiracetam; the Soviet development programme used carphedon (also spelled carphedone or karfedon), a name still current in the analytical literature in 1999; phenylpiracetam became the common research name; and fonturacetam is the WHO INN that the literature adopted around 2023. WADA’s Prohibited List captures the whole chain in one line: “Fonturacetam [4-phenylpiracetam (carphedon)]”.

The development purpose is documented; the in-flight stories are not. Two independent peer-reviewed sources state that phenylpiracetam was developed at the USSR Institute of Biomedical Problems — the Soviet space-medicine institute — to increase the mental and physical performance of cosmonauts during space flight. What no primary source confirms is the famous anecdote that cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov carried it in the Mir medical kit and called it “the equalizer of the whole organism”; that quote traces to a single Russian marketing article. Developed for cosmonauts: documented. Taken by cosmonauts: an anecdote this site labels as one.

The best-characterised mechanism is dopamine-transporter (DAT) inhibition, and it is enantiomer-specific. The R-enantiomer — which Merz Pharmaceuticals developed as MRZ-9547 — binds DAT with an IC50 of 4.82 µM and inhibits dopamine uptake at 14.5 µM, about 38 times weaker at the norepinephrine transporter; a 2020 target-profiling screen found DAT to be its only significant molecular target, and it reaches mouse brain within 15 minutes of dosing. Rodent work also reports binding to α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (IC50 5.86 µM) and no binding to GABA-A, GABA-B, dopamine or 5-HT2 receptors. One popular claim has no evidence behind it: there are zero PubMed results for phenylpiracetam and AMPA receptors — the AMPA story belongs to other racetams, not this one.

Less than the marketing implies, and more than the sceptics admit. The indexed human literature is about fifteen papers, all Russian. Exactly one is a double-blind placebo-controlled trial: 90 epilepsy patients, with improved seizure frequency and cognition in a subgroup — and an abstract that also reports the drug did not reduce the negative effects of standard therapy in 40% of patients. The largest studies (1,170 and 400 patients) are open or non-randomised. A 2025 meta-analysis of eleven asthenia studies (549 patients; PMID 40047835) found a mean 16.3-point improvement on the MFI-20 scale with a 5.5% transient side-effect rate — but pooled only small, single-country studies, with no placebo-pooled estimate in the abstract. For family context, the Cochrane review of the parent compound piracetam in dementia found no support for use. No trial in healthy volunteers exists anywhere.

It depends entirely on the jurisdiction. In Russia it is a prescription-only medicine (brands Phenotropil and Actitropil). It is not authorised for human use by any health authority in the EU or Australia, where official laboratories report intercepting it as bulk raw material. In the United States it is an unapproved drug; academic researchers who bought phenylpiracetam-labelled supplements found undeclared drugs and inaccurate quantities in most products analysed. This site confirmed no FDA enforcement action specifically naming phenylpiracetam — that is a statement about what we could verify, not a legal opinion, and nothing here is legal or medical advice.

Because of its stimulant pharmacology, not because of any demonstrated performance benefit in athletes — no such trial exists. Carphedon was the first nootropic ever prohibited in sport, listed in 1998, and today the WADA Prohibited List carries “Fonturacetam [4-phenylpiracetam (carphedon)]” under S6.A non-specified stimulants, prohibited in-competition — the strictest stimulant tier, alongside amphetamine, cocaine and modafinil. Documented cases include biathlete Olga Pyleva, expelled from the Torino 2006 Olympics and stripped of her silver medal, and cyclist Danilo Hondo, positive in 2005. A urine detection method existed by 1999, and the Rome WADA laboratory found carphedon among stimulants across roughly 100,000 samples from 2000 to 2009.

One phenyl ring — and a different pharmacological personality. Piracetam (2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine acetamide) is the 1960s parent compound for which the word “nootropic” was coined; carphedon adds a phenyl group at the 4-position of the same pyrrolidinone ring. That addition does two things: reviews describe phenylpiracetam as more potent with a wider range of uses in the Russian literature, and it introduces the DAT-inhibitory stimulant character that piracetam lacks — which is why carphedon is the only racetam on the WADA Prohibited List. In animal ischemia models phenylpiracetam outperformed piracetam, but no human head-to-head trial exists, and the Cochrane null for piracetam in dementia hangs over the whole family.

The known list comes from the Russian manufacturer instruction and the clinical corpus: insomnia (especially with afternoon dosing), psychomotor agitation, skin flushing, a feeling of warmth, and increased blood pressure, typically in the first days; across 549 patients in the 2025 meta-analysis (PMID 40047835) the side-effect rate averaged 5.5% and was transient. One open study found the anxiolytic effect waned after four to eight weeks. The unknowns are longer: no published human pharmacokinetics, no long-term controlled safety data, no carcinogenicity assessment, pregnancy category unknown, no formal interaction, dependence or withdrawal studies, and “overdose has not been reported” means no data, not a clean bill. The R-enantiomer’s DAT mechanism is a class flag for misuse liability — unstudied in humans.

No. Nothing on this site is for sale, no supplier is endorsed, and no dosing guidance is given. carphedon.com is an educational research platform: it presents the peer-reviewed literature, the regulatory record and the anti-doping file, and it labels what is not known. The one analytical study of gray-market products found undeclared drugs and inaccurate quantities in most samples — a finding this site reports as a reason for caution, not as a buying guide. Questions about any medicine belong with a qualified clinician.

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