My course of selegiline was over approximately 12 weeks. During this time I took roughly 2.5mg / day, although in the last 2 weeks this was upped to 5mg/day.
It has now been ~ 6 weeks since I completed the course.
Overall, I think Selegiline had a positive impact on things, although I don't think it was the magic path to immortality that some of us are looking for. I felt some increase in alertness for most of the time, although there were several periods where lethargy and fatigue were noticed.
I noticed a definite increase in tolerance to things I'm normally sensitive about. Family and friends all thought I was happier generally over the past months, although subjectively, I felt other factors could be involved here. However, after ceasing the course, I feel these intolerances have, to some degree returned, and I'll find I'll react out of no-where like it's second nature.
I also found while on the course that I had less time for trivia - it wasn't so much that I was bored or uninterested, it's just that I tended to focus more on areas of genuine interest if that makes any sense. In the same way, some chores were neglected, but overall, I feel I accomplished more in the 12 weeks than I had for ages. I built my first rock wall and was happy with the result.
I also tended to become more supportive of loved ones, in that I'd clean up, prepare things and generally cover for those who were otherwise too busy. I guess I do that anyway, but I found myself more inclined to go out of my way to ease the load of others. All this seemed to be accomplished without effort, and everything in a day seemed to fit together easier, without needing to rush.
While taking selegiline, I don't think the subtle effects were all that recognizable to me, but they seemed to be to others. As said, memory was better in the sense that I could always remember (picture in my mind) where I'd either put something down, or where something was that others were looking for. So, there seemed to also be some form of subconscious memory improvement, where a mental note is taken of everything. Sort of like I was in my late teens, where retention and recall were at a peak.
During the 12 weeks, I used MDMA twice, (the beginning and right at the end) and cocaine on a few occasions - when it was offered. Except for coffee, in every instance where sympathomimetics were used, the amounts taken were far less than what's considered an average dose. I noticed no real difference to the expected euphoria - well, nothing that excluded other important variables, such as the strength of the tablets, infrequency of rolling, etc.
With the MDMA, I did notice a slight hypertension, but as I've explained in past postings, this was also occurring when MDMA was being consumed more regularly. Cocaine, in the minimal amounts taken seemed to work much the same. At times the high seemed a bit more accentuated although I did wonder if the coke seen in recent times was of a higher quality. So, by and large, with both MDMA and cocaine, I'd say there that personally I noticed little difference to both the duration and intensity of the effect. However, a friend who was also taking piracetam with selegiline (5mg/day), claimed that he noticed increased effects with almost any drug.
All in all I think selegiline gives positive results when taken in the amounts I've described. I intend to do another course on 5-8mg / day and see if there are any noticeable improvements on the lower dose regimen.
Rasagiline: An even better nootropic
I've been reading about this compound for some time. It was developed by an Israeli pharmaceutical company as an adjunct therapy for parkinsons disease; much the same way that selegiline was developed.
While selegiline does create what's thought to be better metabolic pathways for many endogenous monoamines, it does itself metabolise into 3 compounds, one of which is N-desmethylselegiline, which probably also has MAOB inhibiting properties The other two metabolites are L-amphetamine and L-methamphetamine, both of which are slightly psychoactive, but are also somewhat toxic. Rasagiline on the other hand, produces no toxic metabolites whatsoever. Phase 1 clinical trials indicated it's efficacy is far greater than selegiline as its a better substrate for MAOB.
The big problem with Rasagiline at this stage involves its cost. Because the Israeli company owns the patent, and the drug has, until now, only been available through licensed suppliers of such research compounds, the cost has been too high for it to be used as a noo-tropic. Although we can't mention prices here, I will say that a European company quoted me several tens of thousands of Euros for 100g. The drug could be relatively easily synthesized if the required chemicals were available, although I don't recommend this of course. Pricing may change however once licencing is granted to generic companies and the drug is officially released - which is what's happening now.
If anyone is interested, I have quite a few papers on this potentially "magic" compound.
Rasagiline
