Bromantane: The Russian Smart Drug That Tells Your Brain to Build More Dopamine
Russian smart drugs are kind of crazy.
Most stimulants squeeze out the dopamine you already have. Then you crash.
Bromantane, sold in Russia as Ladasten, does something different. It raises production.
How dopamine is made
Phenylalanine → Tyrosine → L-DOPA → Dopamine → Norepinephrine → Epinephrine.
Two enzymes control the important steps:
- Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) turns tyrosine into L-DOPA. This is the slowest, rate-limiting step.
- DOPA decarboxylase (DDC) turns L-DOPA into dopamine.
What the studies found
In rats, bromantane increased the expression of the genes for both enzymes, in the striatum and the hypothalamus. L-DOPA and dopamine levels rose together with the gene activity.
The authors concluded that the drug's activity comes from new synthesis of TH and DDC. In the first hours there was also more dopamine release.
A later study in a Western journal confirmed the changes in tyrosine hydroxylase, and found that bromantane turned short-term synaptic strengthening in the hippocampus into the long-lasting form. That process is the cellular basis of memory.
What it did in people
In a Russian placebo-controlled trial in patients with neurasthenia, 28 days of Ladasten beat placebo on the speed and size of symptom reduction. The researchers describe a rare combination: stimulating and anti-anxiety at the same time. They saw no withdrawal syndrome after stopping.
The honest part
The human research is Russian, in people with fatigue disorders, not healthy people looking for focus. Bromantane is not approved in the US or the EU, and it is on the WADA list of banned substances for athletes.
How people take it
The trials used 50 to 100 mg a day. If you are in Europe it is easy to get. In the US this is the source I use, 100 mg per tablet:
Bromantanerealpeptides.coView productMore detail in the Bromantane guide.
Quick answers
How does bromantane increase dopamine?
In rat studies it increased the expression of the genes for tyrosine hydroxylase and DOPA decarboxylase, the two enzymes that make dopamine, and L-DOPA and dopamine levels rose with them.
Is bromantane a stimulant?
It is classed as a psychostimulant with anti-anxiety action. In a placebo-controlled trial there was no withdrawal syndrome after 28 days of use.
The studies
- [Ladasten induces the expression of genes regulating dopamine biosynthesis in various structures of rat brain]Eksp Klin Farmakol · 2004 · PMID 15500036
- The effects of ladasten on dopaminergic neurotransmission and hippocampal synaptic plasticity in ratsNeuropharmacology · 2007 · PMID 17854844
- [Ladasten, the new drug with psychostimulant and anxiolytic actions in treatment of neurasthenia (results of the comparative clinical study with placebo)]Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova · 2009 · PMID 19491814