I have used the ampakine Ampalex (CX516) in the last months. Not only me but also several other persons. In my opinion it is nearly worthless to write anything like a report based just on my own experiences, so I waited for some others and their experiences. Even used by much more persons, but without scientific protocol, placebo group and so on, it is not really significant. Look at the papers and studies done by Cortex and other researching groups, the results vary, from very usefull for treatment of several diseases to nearly useless. Cortex has pointed out, that some research was not done with a proper dose of CX516.
I would also prefer to use the stronger CX717 but as you know the structure is still secret, I have decided for CX516 and not some other like CX614 or CX546, because the most research was done with Ampalex (and later CX717). It may be not so effective like the newer compound because of its shorter half life, but with a proper dosage I do not think, that this is a matter, also because of other factors of it`s pharmaceutical properties especially the release of nerve growth factors. Some studies have shown that even days after ceasing the use of ampalex, the effect was still present for days, perhaps also due to the sensitizing of the AMPAr which lasted longer.
So how it feels?
The first time I have used this compound I took about 300mg. It was a little bit exciting, the waiting for the action to take place. I have expected it to be similar to Modafinil, perhaps also because of the modulation of the glutamergic pathway. It is different, they may be some aspects these two share, but Modafinil is definately more promoting wakefullness and motivation, especially the last one may be caused through the involvation of the dopamine, which is not present in Ampalex so far as I know. Taking Modafinil, you feel clearly after 2 hours that you are "on" some psychic active agent. Ampalex is different here, after 1 hour of ingestion, one feels something taking place (you know what I mean, a change in your feeling, thoughts, for example when you feel hyperactive on coffein) but it is much more slight. Even with 600mg (the dose I use usually now) one does not feel "high" or strongly affected, the psychic sideffects are not so strong present as with other pharmaceuticals.
But there is a change, it is really difficult for me to describe it, I only can try. I can notice it when I am learning something or I have to understand correletions between some mechanism (for example in molecular biology etc.) to visualize the things I hear in the university or I read about. Sometimes the effect on the memory is very strong noticable, especially after learning for tests. The cognition is enhanced but not on the way it happens with modafinil (or higher dosages of modafinil). With modafinil one sometimes has a kind of thinking that is very concentrated, but it can dimnish the outside thinking, you focus on one way towards a solution and don`t see the others (as I sad difficult to describe), one would say that the phantasy is a little bit limited, if this is the right word for that. With Ampalex this is not the case, much more it may be helpfull to see other ways, to combine the learned informations and to see the links between issues. For me it was also interesting to notice, that the effect wasn`t very strong on the first day but it was on the second and stronger on the third one. I don`t know if this is caused by the growth factors or by some other mechanism.
Now I am using often a mixture of just a small ammount of modafinil (never more then 50mg, usually 30-40mg) and 600mg Ampalex. Sometimes adding green tee.
Modafinil gives me the state of totally wakefullness, which combined with the effects of Amaplex are simply great allowing one unbelievable concentration and allow an easier understanding and memorizing of the lectures.
I have tried many nootropics and although I know that here are enough enthusiasts who don`t want to hear this and will come up with the argument that I should not compare myself to all other people (what works for you won`t work for someone else and so on and on....) I have to say, that I have only used 2 or 3 that have ever worked.
Modafinil, Ampalex and perhaps green tee as addition to those 2. Everything else was totaly useless or even caused a state, where my abilities were more dimnished than enhanced. Perhaps are my claims higher, but the nootropic market is, as I have mentioned before a little bit absurd, giving nearly any psychological active agent the word "nootropic" as an attachment. So this is how I want to end this short report. You want me in the end to say if I think ampalex works.
And in my subjective opinion I can say: Yes, it does.
