L-Dopa
Other names Levodopa, Mucuna Pruriens
This nootropic has no healthy human placebo-controlled studies that meet our inclusion criteria. Negative side effects can occur if used carelessly, so make sure you’re aware of the risks of L-Dopa.
Risks
The legality and side effects of L-Dopa
You should always consider the risks of a nootropic before you use it.
Side effects
Interactions
Supplements and drugs can interact with L-Dopa to increase or decrease the positive or negative effects you experience. If you are already using any supplements or drugs, speak with your trusted medical professional before you experiment with L-Dopa. To learn more about the potential interactions between L-Dopa and other substances, use interaction-checker.
Legality
Is your country not included? Learn how to find out if L-Dopa is legal in your country.
Legality Disclaimer
The contents herein are not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. While we have done our best to be as accurate as possible in the information we convey to you about the legality of nootropics, there is a risk for inaccuracies and errors. If you’re uncertain about the legality of any of your actions, contact a legal counsel or your local authorities governing the legality of various substances you may want to use/import/travel with.
Studies
Studies conducted on the effects of L-Dopa in healthy humans
No placebo-controlled trials on healthy humans that meet our inclusion criteria have been conducted on L-Dopa.
Summary
Results indicate a specific link between prefrontal low theta oscillations, dopaminergic neuromodulation during WM and subsequent LTM performance.
Summary
"MPH failed to enhance retention of words at a 30 min delay, but it improved 24 h delayed memory recall relative to PLA and LEV. [...] MPH speeded response times on the Sternberg Memory Scanning task and improved performance on the Paired Associates Learning task, relative to LEV, but not PLA. Performance on the Spatial working memory task was not affected by the treatments. These findings suggest that MPH and LEV might have opposite effects on memory."
Summary
Acute mood enhancement was seen after a single dose of L-dopa and Carbidopa
Summary
"Participants treated with levodopa compared to those on placebo demonstrated unambiguously less efficient acquisition of stimulus-response associations. The groups did not differ in their ability to enact stimulus-specific selections once they were learned, however, even though these responses were not overlearned."
Summary
"Older adults learned more poorly than younger adults at baseline, being more likely to shift responses after misleading punishment. Levodopa worsened stimulus-reward learning relative to placebo to the same extent in both groups, irrespective of differences in baseline performance and expected dopamine levels."
Summary
"We found that levodopa did not affect the overall accuracy of choices, nor the relative expression of positively or negatively reinforced values. This contradicts several studies and suggests that overall dopamine levels may not play a role in the choice performance for values learned through reinforcement learning in older adults."
Summary
These data support recent indications that dopamine contributes to punishment processing and suggest that the novelty-seeking trait is a measure of susceptibility to drug effects on motivation. These findings are also consistent with the possibility of an inverted U-shaped response function of dopamine in the striatum, suggesting an optimal level of dopamine release for motivational processing.
Summary
L-Dopa enhances some aspects of learning and memory in healthy human adults
Summary
Exogenous dopamine impairs stimulus-reward learning, independent of PD pathology and prior to sensitization through repeated exposure, in healthy adults with normal cognition and baseline dopamine function. Our findings support the dopamine overdose hypothesis and caution clinicians about detrimental effects of levodopa in all clinical populations (e.g., early PD, restless leg syndrome) regardless of baseline cognitive and dopaminergic system function.
Summary
Exogenous dopamine impairs stimulus-reward learning, independent of PD pathology and prior to sensitization through repeated exposure, in healthy adults with normal cognition and baseline dopamine function. Our findings support the dopamine overdose hypothesis and caution clinicians about detrimental effects of levodopa in all clinical populations (e.g., early PD, restless leg syndrome) regardless of baseline cognitive and dopaminergic system function.
Summary
Levodopa significantly enhanced the speed, overall success, and long-term retention of novel word learning in a dose-dependent manner. These findings indicate new ways to potentiate learning in a variety of domains if conventional training alone fails.
Summary
The oral administration of a single dose of levodopa (L-dopa) in 10 healthy human male subjects induced cognitive, not motor, changes during figure-copying tasks that were unrelated to the neuroendocrine and behavioural effects of levodopa. Results point to a decrease in alertness induced by levodopa.
Summary
"These results show that levodopa specifically affects the stimulus preprocessing stage, which suggests that the dopaminergic system plays a role in sensory processing, possibly by acting on the level of arousal."
Summary
"Adverse events of L-Dopa were nausea (four cases) and excitation (one case). Subjects who did not develop adverse events were faster under L-Dopa than under placebo (p = 0.02), whereas subjects who had nausea or excitation were slower. A single dose of L-Dopa either deteriorated or improved choice reaction time in healthy volunteers according to whether it was sedative and whether it generated disruptive adverse events."
Last updated Saturday, June 10, 2023