Sunifiram is an experimental, potent and powerful nootropic that enhances memory, expands learning capacity, and uplifts mood. A recent addition to the racetam family that seems more than promising. Sunifiram dosage is usually as small as 5 mg due to its potency. And it is yet to be approved anywhere in the world.

Overview

What is Sunifiram?

Sunifiram is a synthetic derivative of Piracetam. Although there has not been much evidence about its efficacy, it has been proven to be beneficial for the (many) individuals using it. With research and trials ongoing and growing, its use will increase along as well. Sunifiram (also known as DM-235) has been one of the best nootropics that powerfully influence cognition. It enhances mood, lowers stress, and increases energy and focus.

It is an invention from the year 2000. And although it is very new to the market, it is proving to be effective and useful to individuals both in long and short terms. It is an effective nootropic that improves learning and memory, and furthermore enhances cognitive function. It is used in the treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amnesia, like most racetams. There are no reports of any severe side effects from its use, making it effective, useful, and safe.

Although it belongs to the racetam class, Sunifiram has a different structure. Therefore, it is sometimes referred to as a piperazine alkaloid rather than racetam. It delivers many of the same memory and learning enhancements as piracetam but is much more potent.

Sunifiram is also an ampakine. It increases the efficacy and activity of neurotransmitter glutamine. This leads to significant changes such as mood and energy improvement along with other cognition benefits.

Sunifiram (developmental codename DM-235) is an experimental drug which has antiamnesic effects in animal studies and with significantly higher potency than piracetam. Sunifiram is a molecular simplification of unifiram (DM-232). As of 2016, sunifiram had not been subjected to toxicology testing, nor to any human clinical trials, and is not approved for use anywhere in the world. Wikipedia

Benefits and Effects

What Are Sunifiram Benefits?

  • Reduces Anxiety, Stress, and Symptoms of Depression
  • Enhances Mood & Boosts Energy
  • Improves Learning Skill and Memory Formation
  • Enhances Focus and Motivation
  • Enhances Visual Perception
  • Increases Libido

 

Supporting research:

Reduces Anxiety, Stress, and Symptoms of Depression

As an antidepressant and anxiety reliever, Sunifiram produces its effects as a mirror image of an ampakine. It reacts with glutamatergic AMPA receptors. That also allows it to act as a mild stimulant.

Enhances Mood & Boosts Energy

Sunifiram is known to increase energy and enhance mood. This is likely due to its antidepressant-like effect.

Improves Learning Skill and Memory Formation

Sunifiram is a potent and powerful nootropic. It enhances memory formation and retention as well as expanding the learning capacity. It is in use in case of diseases that cause memory loss or amnesia. Its use is not yet regulated by the FDA, but still widely in use by many individuals for its nootropic benefits. [R] [R]

Appears to promote long term potentiation in the hippocampus with oral ingestion, which should result in an improvement in memory in animals that have otherwise impaired memory. Examine.com

Enhances Focus and Motivation

Sunifiram enhances focus and concentration. It is known to improve motivation and enable a person to complete mentally-demanding tasks at ease and comfort. The focus heightening and motivation is due to the increase in the release and utilization of acetylcholine; which has a direct impact on cognitive abilities.

Enhances Visual Perception

Sunifiram keeps you out of stress and negative thinking. It makes you have a confident, better outlook on life. It allows you to look at the future positive and ambitiously. Such useful effects are helpful for people at any and every stage of life.

Increases Libido

Increase in the sex drive is often in anecdotal reports. However, there is no clinical evidence on this specific claim and only anecdotal ones support it.

Mechanism of Action

How Does Sunifiram Work?

Sunifiram is a piracetam derivative. But it often comes as a surprise that it has a different chemical structure from the other racetams. It is basically a piperazine alkaloid which can act as an ampakine that will increase the activity of glutamine receptors and increase the stimulation effects. Or it can serve as a cholinergic that stimulates the production and release of acetylcholine.

Sunifiram Structure

AMPAkine Action

Although no such evidence is still available about its use and its action in humans due to the lack of the trials, the primary factor that drives it to work would be the ampakine factor which allows it to provide the stimulation effects by acting at the glutamate receptors. Ampakines are mild stimulants. They can increase alertness and energy. They do not cause restlessness which like other antidepressants or anxiolytics. The increase the energy levels and the activity factor is also one of the significant roles Sunifiram plays. Due to its effect on the glutamate receptors, it leads to functions such as spatial navigation and the formation and storage of memory, which are crucial for many neurological conditions.

Cholinergic Action

Sunifiram acts as a cholinergic as well. Due to this effect, it leads to the production and release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Although the exact mechanism remains unknown. Acetylcholine increases brain function and cognition abilities. The primary functions are memory enhancement, learning speed and capacity which grow and expand very notably. You can also count on the fluid intelligence or ability to solve unique problems with this supplement. Sunifiram is an essential nootropic to students as well as athletes to increase their performance and achieve better results.

Sunifiram appears to act on the glycine binding site of NMDA receptors, which enhances signalling and activates some intracellular proteins (CAMKII and PKCα) which then positively regulate the AMPA receptors. These mechanisms are highly similar to that seen with nefiracetam. Examine.com

The mechanism of action of sunifiram is unknown. Sunifiram, as well as unifiram, were assayed at a wide panel of sites, including the most important receptors, ion channels, and transporters, but showed no affinity for any of the sites. They specifically did not bind to the glutamate, GABA, serotonin, dopamine, adrenergic, histamine, acetylcholine, or opioid receptors at concentrations of up to 1 μM. In addition, the drugs were tested on recombinant AMPA receptors and showed no potentiation of the receptors, indicating that they do not act as AMPA receptor positive allosteric modulators. However, they were able to prevent the amnesia induced by the AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX in the passive avoidance test, suggesting that indirect/downstream AMPA receptor activation may be involved in their memory-enhancing effects. Sunifiram, as well as other nootropics such as piracetam, levetiracetam, and aniracetam are able to antagonize inhibition of glucose transport by barbiturates (e.g., pentobarbital), diazepam, and certain other drugs in human erythrocytes in vitro (Ki = 26.0 uM for sunifiram), and this action has been found to correlate with their potency in reversing scopolamine-induced memory deficits in mice. However, this action has been regarded as very unlikely to represent the main mechanism of action of sunifiram. – Wikipedia

Dosage

How To Take Sunifiram?

Sunifiram works effectively at a dosage of 5 to 10 mg –  at a maximum of three times per day. This is the safe dose which is often taken sublingual for maximum efficacy and absorption.

It is advised that one starts with the smallest doses to prevent side effects and toxicity. Although it is not in documentation, tolerance can grow with excessive usage, so it is better to take it occasionally instead of daily basis.

 

only 4-8 mg 2-3 times a day is needed with this ultra potent nootropic. When you’re talking about the Bugatti of the nootropics world, less is more. A little goes all the way!

Stack

For Boosting Cognitive Function

By pairing sunifiram with one or more of the racetams like piracetamoxiracetam, or Noopept, we can achieve this increase which has been the most common and most favorite Sunifiram combo. A choline source like Alpha GPC is an important part of this combo due to the increased choline depletion by the former nootropics.

For Mood Enhancement

Combining Aniracetam with sunifiram is a good option for mood enhancement. You can combine L-theanine, which increases production of dopamine, serotonin, and GABA with sunifiram. Sulbutiamine, which is a potent enhancer of cholinergic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic functions can be a good combination as well. Choline source should always be present in those combos to prevent getting a headache.

Side Effects

What Are Sunifiram Side Effects?

Due to being fairly new and not as widely popular as the rest of the racetams, no severe side effects of sunifiram have surfaced yet. Nevertheless, clinical trials are still ongoing, and it is yet to get FDA approval. Use with caution.

User Experience

Reddit

On a Reddit user wrote down a thorough experience of sunifiram:

For years I have been a hardcore coffee drinker and other than that I had not used any other substances to enhance my cognition in any way. A few months ago I started a doctor-supervised weight loss program that included the use of 30 mg of Phentermine daily as an appetite suppressant.

Unfortunately, Phentermine is an amphetamine that gave me an extreme energy rush that was affecting my focus and concentration. I could not sit and study because I was getting easily distracted by anything. This was starting to affect my performance in my current classes and at work so I tried using 200 mg of L-Theanine and reduce my caffeine intake with moderately positive effects.

After losing about 100 lbs, I am ready to stop the Phentermine and continue my healthy eating habits for a long-term weight loss maintenance. This Phentermine is addictive so my doctor is reducing the dose gradually to minimize the withdrawal effects. However, I started feeling slightly depressed and foggy. This is when I decided to go on my own and experiment with Noots to see if they would help.

My doctor is not familiar with any nootropics nor did he think anything like that would be appropriate since the effects of phentermine withdrawal would pass in a few weeks.

I did some research about nootropics that would help me with this situation and decided to go shopping. I was low on cash but had a credit on Amazon so the only strong nootropic that I found was Sunifiram. Despite the warnings that there are no sufficient studies on the long-term effects, I decided to assume all risks and give it a try.

The Experience

I started five days ago with 10mg of Sunifiram administered sublingually. Approximately 10-15 minutes after the first dose I felt what others have called “sunny”. It is hard to explain but it was somewhat overwhelming and the effect did not last long.

The following day I took the same dose and got the same but short effect. I did have a mild headache after waking up but nothing unbearable. I started to get the full effect on Day 3. Suddenly I was able to focus on whatever I wanted and the ideas flowed easily. I had struggled to finish a paper for days but this time I finished it in less than an hour.

Today is Day 5 of using Sunifiram and I have to say it has been a positive experience so far. I wish I could explain better my experience but I have not used anything with comparable results. It is not an extreme rush of energy nor a sedative effect. I just feel a sense of clarity that I had not felt before.

I don’t want to take the risk of using Sunifiram for long-term cognition enhancement given the unknown effects of continued use, so I will stop taking it as soon as I finish this class. Once I have some cash to spend, I might look into other alternatives like PiracetamNoopept or something similar.

TLDR

Sunifiram was my first experience with a “smart drug”. During the first two days the effects were mild and nearly unnoticeable. After the third day I felt a positive improvement in my mood and focus. Since there are no sufficient studies on the long term use of this substance, I will discontinue its use and seek other Nootropics with better background research.

Conclusion

Sunifiram is one of the nootropics having huge and fast-growing demand, so its not easily accessible. Its potency, efficacy, and effectiveness have been superb. Although it does not have a lot of trials under its belt, it is nevertheless one which has been encouraging and promoted as a safe and effective nootropic.

Not for everyday use, but it can be a good companion to have in your stack. Increasing energy, cognitive abilities, and physical performance are the prime features of this product which make it one worth trying out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sunifiram is an experimental, potent racetam. It shares most of racetams benefits and effects. The dosage is usually as small as 5 mg due to its potency. And it is yet to be approved anywhere in the world.

In the US, Sunifiram is unscheduled, and not FDA approved.

Being an ‘experimental’ drug, and a very potent one, its important to take very low doses (5 mg, 10 mg tops) and do your research to find news and updates on the matter. You can find the post I cited from Nootropics City under Conclusion which has more information regarding that.

I have found a few different vendors, none of which I tried, rather, only listing for research purpose. Nootropics City, Nootropics Retail, as well as NewMind – all offer Sunifiram in powder as well as capsules.

Unless you are quite experienced in racetams, I wouldn’t recommend anything over 5 mg as a starting point. People reported side effects after deciding to increase the dose for more results.

Sunifiram has a half-life of 1-2 hours

Not really at all. Adderall (amphetamine) causes release of dopamine and norepinephrine to increase focus and cause physical and mental stimulation. Sunifiram is a positive allosteric modulator of AMPA channels (increases the activity when a glutamate molecule is bound, but not when nothing is bound), which are a subtype of glutamate receptors. The effect of this is to increase memory formation via long term potentiation, which occurs when NMDA and AMPA (both subtypes of glutamate receptors) channels are both activated in the same neuron. When this happens more glutamate receptors are put into the neuron to make it more likely to fire in the future. Sunifiram increases AMPA firing so increases the odds of a long term potentiation event happening, and therefore memory formation. It does not act as a CNS stimulant like adderall though, and those two drugs really serve different purposes.

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