SAFETY & THE ANTI-DOPING FILE
Two files, one page: what is known about adverse effects (and the longer list of what is not), and the anti-doping record that made carphedon the first nootropic prohibited in sport. Nothing here is medical advice.
Per the Russian manufacturer instruction, as summarised in reference sources: insomnia — especially when taken after mid-afternoon — psychomotor agitation, flushing of the skin, a feeling of warmth, and increased blood pressure, typically in the first days of administration; an anorexic effect is reported with extended use. The manufacturer cautions elderly patients and those with cardiovascular disease, because stimulant properties could cause serious complications in these groups. Across the eleven asthenia studies pooled in 2025 (549 patients), side-effect frequency averaged 5.5%, described as transient and regressing within a week of continued treatment.[15]
The tolerance question is in the record, not just in internet lore: in an open comparative study, the anxiolytic effect of phenotropil decreased after four to eight weeks of continued treatment. Whether that is pharmacological tolerance is unstudied — but the waning effect is published.[20]
Human pharmacokinetics
Never published in the indexed literature; the circulating half-life and bioavailability figures trace to product labelling, not clinical PK studies.
Long-term use
No controlled human safety data beyond roughly three months.
Carcinogenicity
No human or regulatory carcinogenicity assessment found.
Pregnancy & lactation
Category unknown — no data.
Dependence & withdrawal
No published human data. The R-enantiomer’s DAT inhibition is a mechanistic class flag for misuse liability; no human abuse-liability study exists.
Overdose
“Overdose has not been reported” per the instruction — an absence of reports, not evidence about overdose.
Drug interactions
No formal human interaction studies; epilepsy trials co-administered standard antiepileptics without interaction signals in the abstracts.
Gray-market products
The one analytical study found undeclared drugs and inaccurate declared quantities in most “cognitive enhancement” supplements tested.
Sources: the 2025 meta-analysis, the corpus survey, and the Cohen 2021 market analysis.[15][26]
S6 STIMULANTS → S6.A NON-SPECIFIED STIMULANTS — “Fonturacetam [4-phenylpiracetam (carphedon)]” — prohibited In-Competition.[28]
That is the strictest stimulant tier: non-specified substances, the same section as amphetamine, cocaine, modafinil, mesocarb and bromantan. The listing dates to 1998 — “the first nootropic prohibited in sport was fonturacetam (4-phenylpiracetam, carphedon) in 1998”, per the Catlin group’s 2023 review — and phenylpiracetam remains the only racetam on the list. A detection method has existed since 1999: SPME-GC-NPD in human urine, limit of detection 0.01 µg/mL, written explicitly for stimulant doping analysis.[29][30][4]
Why a substance with no published athletic-performance trial sits on the list is itself the interesting fact: the listing reflects stimulant pharmacology and detectability. Real-world use is documented through positives, not studies — the Rome WADA-accredited laboratory found carphedon among stimulants across roughly 100,000 urine samples between 2000 and 2009.[31]
Positive for carphedon after the 15 km individual on 13 February 2006; on 16 February a three-member IOC panel found a doping violation — expelled from the Games, silver medal stripped, the first doping case of the Torino Olympics. The Russian Anti-Doping Committee’s head said an over-the-counter medication for an ankle injury contained the drug; the IBU banned her for two years regardless.[32]
Positive for carphedon at the 2005 Vuelta a Murcia; suspended and fired by Gerolsteiner; the sanction moved from two years to one, back to two when he lost his Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal in January 2006, before a Swiss civil court ended the suspension early.[33]
Listed here only to correct a widespread misattribution. The IOC’s Oswald Commission sanctioned Vilukhina over Sochi 2014 without naming any substance in its public documents; in 2020 the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned her individual-race disqualification and restored her sprint silver. Whether carphedon was analytically involved could not be confirmed from any primary source — so this site does not count her among carphedon cases, and neither should anyone citing carefully.[34]
Russia: a prescription-only medicine — brands Phenotropil and Actitropil — with the product information stating 100–200 mg/day pharmacological dosages (stated here as label information, never as guidance). European Union and Australia: not authorised for human use by any health authority; official laboratories intercepted near-100%-purity bulk raw material between 2020 and 2024. United States: an unapproved drug; the peer-reviewed record classes it as not approved for human use, and analysed gray-market supplements failed on content accuracy. This site confirmed no FDA enforcement action specifically naming phenylpiracetam — that exact statement, no more.[27][26]
Athletes: the listing is in-competition and absolute — “a doctor prescribed it” did not protect the documented cases. Everyone else: legal status varies by jurisdiction and changes; this page is a reading of the public record dated 2026-08-15, not legal advice.