Piracetam is a synthetic "racetam" drug studied for memory and thinking problems such as dementia. It has been marketed as a drug in other countries, but it is not approved by FDA in the US. It is not a peptide; it is listed here with other unapproved research compounds.
Also known as: Nootropyl, racetam.
There is no FDA-approved piracetam product. A 2026 study outside the US gave a single 800 mg tablet of the reference product, Nootropyl (Yan). These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
Piracetam is not FDA approved: we found no piracetam product in Drugs@FDA or on DailyMed. In a February 2019 warning letter to one seller, FDA said that seller's piracetam products were not dietary supplements and, because they were sold with disease claims, treated them as unapproved new drugs.
The evidence for memory is weak. A 2001 Cochrane review (Flicker) found an effect on doctors' overall impression of change in dementia or cognitive impairment, but no benefit on more specific measures, and concluded the published evidence did not support its use. A 2024 meta-analysis of 18 studies (886 people with memory impairment) found no clear difference from placebo on memory (Gouhie).
In a 2026 study in healthy adults given 800 mg tablets (Yan), food slowed absorption, lowering the peak and delaying the time to peak, without changing the total amount absorbed. The abstract does not give a half-life, and we could not check one against an FDA label, since there is none, so we do not list one.
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