Comment · Thu, September 5, 2013 · Ceretropic
Is it necessary to maintain a piracetam blood serum level?
Original post in this thread
Damderiam · 20 points
With a half life of 4-5 hours it would require measuring and taking exact doses 3-4 times a day, and that's just not feasible all the time. However, there are plenty of medicines that continue to act, indirectly, after they've been eliminated. Am I getting any effect at all by taking it prior to bedtime, or would a morning dose be necessary as well? Since we don't know exactly how piracetam works I'll have to go by anecdotes and experimental evidence, but it's better than winging it. I figure it may, for example, increase the efficiency of sleep, or have lingering effects.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Peak plasma concentrations are reached within about 1.5 hours. Since most is excreted unchanged in the urine, and the half life is 4-5 hours, you will need to dose 3 times a day to be most effective. Studies have shown that to be the case as well.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8328997
These effects are greatest between 1 and 4 h after dosage, and then diminish progressively to disappear between 8 and 12 h after administration. This explains the need to divide the total daily dose into 3 intakes at 8-hourly intervals. This study confirms the presence of four sites of action of piracetam: the vessel wall, platelets, plasma and cell membranes (RBC, WBC), which provide the basis for the potentially important antithrombotic activity of piracetam.