Sleep & focus · Pill

Bromantane

Gray market

Checked 18 Oct 2026 · 17 sources · 14 corrections on this page · No vendors · No affiliates · No one buys a word of it

76.0% responders

Clinical Use (Russia) · 28 days · 50–100 mg a day · 728 patients · Voznesenskaia 2010

Gray market · No FDA ruling — not on any list

Sold as a research chemical. Some clinics and pharmacies still supply it; that’s their risk, not a change in the rule.

Bottom line

Approved in Russia for asthenia. Almost no Western evidence.

Also called: Ladasten · ADK-709 · N-(2-adamantyl)-N-(para-bromophenyl)amine
Category: Small Molecule — Actoprotector / Adamantane Derivative
Class: Actoprotector / adamantane derivative
Molecular Weight: 306.24 Da
Half-life: ~11.5 hours (widely quoted; no study on this page’s reference list reports it)
Route (studied): Oral (people and rats)
Route (sold): Oral tablets (Rx in Russia); powder (research chemical)
Primary Use: Asthenia, fatigue, anxiolysis
FDA Status: Not approved (US)
Rx Status: Prescription in Russia (Ladasten); registration year not in the sources read
Dependence Potential: None documented in clinical studies
WADA Status: Banned S6 (Stimulants) — since 1997
Cost & Access: Research-only

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The other four questions

What does it do? In rats, it raises the activity of the genes for the enzymes that make dopamine (Vakhitova et al., 2004; Vakhitova et al., 2005) and changes dopamine and serotonin turnover in the brain (Kudrin et al., 1995). Russian trials describe both a stimulant and a calming effect (Neznamov et al., 2009).
Who uses it? Russian clinicians for fatigue, burnout, post-viral exhaustion. Western nootropic self-experimenters via research-chemical vendors.
Does the evidence hold up? Its clinical record is two Russian trials in asthenia and neurasthenia (Neznamov et al., 2009; Voznesenskaia et al., 2010). No Western-registered trial. WADA bans it as a stimulant, S6 (Prohibited List 2026).
Bottom line? Approved in Russia for asthenia. Almost no Western evidence.

Dosing from the Literature

Published for fatigue: 50–100 mg once or twice a day, from the Russian label and Russian trials. Not published: any trial outside Russia.

Context	Dose	Frequency	Notes
Russian Rx Ladasten (asthenia)	50–100 mg	1–2x daily	Russian label for asthenia, as the trials used it: 50 mg once or twice a day for 28 days (Neznamov et al., 2009; Voznesenskaia et al., 2010).

Dosing Disclaimer

The doses above are the Russian label’s and the trials’; no trial outside Russia has tested any dose. Always work with a licensed healthcare provider.

What It Is

Bromantane is a small-molecule adamantane derivative (N-(2-adamantyl)-N-(para-bromophenyl)amine) developed at the Zakusov State Research Institute of Pharmacology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences beginning in the 1980s. It belongs to a pharmacological category rarely discussed in Western medicine — the actoprotectors — compounds characterized by enhancement of physical work capacity, stress resistance, and cognitive performance without the classical stimulant / sympathomimetic profile of amphetamines or modafinil-class wakefulness agents.

Bromantane is sold in Russia as Ladasten (Ладастен), 50 mg and 100 mg tablets made by the pharmaceutical firm LEKKO, and is classed there as an asthenic agent; its product text was approved by the maker in 2012 (Russian drug register, 2012). Its Russian trials were run in asthenia and in neurasthenia (Neznamov et al., 2009; Voznesenskaia et al., 2010).

Bromantane entered the doping literature in 1997, when a French military laboratory reported it in the Lancet as “Bromontan, a new doping agent” (Burnat et al., 1997). WADA’s 2026 Prohibited List bans it in competition as a stimulant, S6 (World Anti-Doping Agency, 2026).

The unusual feature of bromantane's pharmacology — and the reason it has held a place in Russian psychopharmacology — is the combination of gentle, trophic dopaminergic (related to dopamine signaling) effect with genuine anxiolytic activity. Most compounds that increase dopaminergic tone (amphetamines, methylphenidate) are also anxiogenic at active doses. Most anxiolytics (benzodiazepines) blunt cognition. Bromantane's combination of mild pro-motivational / pro-cognitive dopaminergic signaling with GABAergic (related to GABA signaling) anxiolytic tone is rare.

Mechanism of Action

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) upregulation — The central mechanistic feature. Bromantane increases gene expression and protein levels of tyrosine hydroxylase — the rate-limiting enzyme in dopamine biosynthesis — in striatal and mesolimbic dopamine-producing neurons. The effect builds over days rather than hours, consistent with a transcriptional (at the gene-switching level) rather than receptor-direct mechanism (Mikhaylova et al., 2007). Two papers from one Russian group put numbers on it: after ladasten at 50 mg/kg, L-DOPA and dopamine accumulated in rat striatum and hypothalamus in step with the transcription of the tyrosine-hydroxylase and DOPA-decarboxylase genes, which the authors read as activation of de novo synthesis of both enzymes (Vakhitova 2004, PMID 15500036), and a single dose more than doubled TH mRNA in the hypothalamus at 1.5–2 hours, alongside cytosine demethylation in the TH gene promoter (Vakhitova 2006, PMID 16915929).
Tryptophan hydroxylase upregulation — Parallel upregulation of the serotonin-synthesizing enzyme. Together, TH + TPH elevation increases the brain's capacity to produce dopamine and serotonin rather than acutely releasing existing stores.
Reuptake is not the main route — Bromantane's measured effect on the transporters is weak and needs high concentrations: in the institute's own mechanism work it blocked dopamine synaptosomal uptake and inhibited neuronal serotonin uptake at 50 µM, and noradrenaline uptake only above 500 µM, while the behavioural effects appear at 1–5 mg/kg (Morozov 1999, PMID 10198757). That is the difference from amphetamines, methylphenidate, cocaine and modafinil, which work at the acute-release / acute-reuptake level — and the synthesis-capacity mechanism is why the Russian trials saw no withdrawal syndrome (Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814).
GABAergic potentiation — Bromantane enhances GABAergic signaling (possibly via GABA_A-related mechanisms). This is the source of the anxiolytic effect and the reason bromantane does not produce the agitation / anxiety typically seen with dopaminergic stimulants. The English-language review of the class describes bromantane as strengthening GABAergic transmission by lowering expression of the genes that supervise GABA-transporter synthesis (Oliynyk 2012, PMID 24009833).
Actoprotective / stress-protective effect — In preclinical models, bromantane improves physical work capacity under heat stress, hypoxia, and fatigue-loading paradigms. This is the defining feature of the "actoprotector" class. The mechanism likely combines stress-resistance transcriptional programs with the neurotransmitter-synthesis upregulation described above. The work-capacity measurement: in mice and rats, 0.5–50 mg/kg improved swimming and treadmill performance by 1.3–1.6 times more than optimal doses of phenamine, and the effect lasted at least 24 hours (Morozov 1998, PMID 9929819).
HSP70 / stress-response modulation — Some Russian preclinical work attributes part of the actoprotective effect to upregulation of heat-shock protein 70 and related stress-response pathways.
Immunomodulatory (adjusting the immune system up or down) effects — Secondary effects on immune function (reducing stress-induced immunosuppression) have been reported in Russian work. These are plausible mechanistically given HPA-axis modulation but are peripheral to the primary indication.
Lack of classical stimulant profile — Unlike amphetamines, bromantane does not cause tachycardia, marked blood-pressure elevation, anorexia, or sleep disturbance at therapeutic doses in controlled studies. Its dopaminergic effect is trophic (synthesis-enabling) rather than acute-release. In anesthetized rats it raised stroke and minute blood volume at a reduced heart rate and lowered peripheral resistance, with only a small, short-lived rise in systemic arterial pressure, and in freely moving rats it tended to lower urinary adrenaline and noradrenaline excretion (Morozov 2000, PMID 10763107).
Slow onset of effect — The clinical consequence of the synthesis-upregulation mechanism is that bromantane's full effect takes 5–14 days of consistent dosing to develop, not the minutes-to-hours of stimulants. This profile fits chronic asthenia management better than acute cognitive stimulation.

What the Research Shows

Russian Phase III in asthenia — Multi-center Russian clinical trials comparing bromantane (50–100 mg/day) with placebo in patients with diagnosed asthenia. Significant improvement on fatigue, motivation, cognitive clarity, and quality-of-life scales. These trials underpinned the 2009 Ladasten approval. Published primarily in Russian-language journals with limited independent Western replication. The largest published course is a 28-center Russian study of 728 analyzed patients with asthenic disorders on 50–100 mg a day for 28 days: 76.0% responders on the CGI-S and 90.8% on the CGI-I, the effect visible by day 3 and still present a month after the drug stopped, with adverse effects in 3% and discontinuation in 0.8% (Voznesenskaia 2010, PMID 21322821). The placebo comparison is a separate randomized blind study in neurasthenia — 28 days of ladasten or placebo, then a week of placebo for everyone — in which ladasten reduced the main asthenic symptoms faster and further than placebo and no withdrawal syndrome followed (Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814).
Stimulant and anxiolytic at once — What the Russian trials describe is one drug doing both jobs: a psychostimulant effect on fatigue together with an anxiolytic one, which is unusual for a stimulant and is the combination the trialists credit for the result in asthenic disorders (Siuniakov 2006, PMID 16995430; Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814). No published trial compares bromantane with diazepam.
Cognitive / attention performance — Improvements in attention, reaction time, and working memory in Russian clinical studies; attributed to enhanced prefrontal dopaminergic tone.
Military / physical performance — The original Russian Academy of Medical Sciences brief included enhancement of soldier performance under extreme stress conditions (heat, hypoxia, sustained physical load). Actoprotective effect was specifically documented in these paradigms.
No tolerance / no withdrawal — Russian clinical trials did not observe tolerance development with chronic use or withdrawal on discontinuation — consistent with the synthesis-upregulation mechanism as opposed to reuptake inhibition. This is one of the compound's safety differentiators vs amphetamine-class stimulants. The trial that looked for it ended with a placebo week and found no withdrawal syndrome (Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814).
Preclinical dopamine / serotonin turnover — Kudrin and colleagues (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) demonstrated bromantane-induced increases in striatal dopamine and cortical serotonin synthesis in rat models.
Immunostimulant work — Russian military medicine literature included evaluation of bromantane in stress-induced immunosuppression, with some signal of restoration of lymphocyte function.
Independent Western replication — Thin. The compound has not been the subject of a Western Phase II / III trial. Most English-language primary literature is limited to Russian-authored papers published in English-indexed journals.

Research Context

Bromantane's evidence base sits in an unusual position: substantial Russian Phase III clinical data sufficient for Russian Rx approval, but thin Western independent replication. The compound is not a dossier-gap peptide like many on this site — it has real human trial data underlying an approved drug product in Russia. What it lacks is Western regulator review and independent replication by non-Russian academic groups. For users comfortable with that asymmetry, bromantane has more clinical data behind it than most "research peptides"; for users who weight Western regulatory evidence most heavily, the gap matters.

Human Data

Ladasten asthenia Phase III — Russian multi-center trials in asthenia, published in 2009 and 2010. Bromantane significantly outperformed placebo on fatigue, motivation, cognitive-clarity, and quality-of-life endpoints in adults with diagnosed asthenia. The two published ones: a randomized blind placebo-controlled study in neurasthenia (Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814) and a 28-center study of 728 analyzed patients on 50–100 mg a day for 28 days (Voznesenskaia 2010, PMID 21322821).
Placebo comparison (Neznamov 2009, PMID 19491814) — Randomized blind study in neurasthenia: 28 days of ladasten or placebo, then a week of placebo for everyone. Ladasten reduced the main asthenic symptoms faster and further than placebo, and no withdrawal syndrome followed.
Asthenia in other settings — Published Russian reports extend to non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (Sarycheva 2011, PMID 21434470) and to the fatigue of incurable cancer patients, where 100 mg of ladasten was one of three drugs in the regimen tested (Ryazankina 2015, PMID 26087610). We found no published study of bromantane in post-influenza or post-COVID fatigue.
Neurasthenia — Approved indication. Clinical practice incorporates bromantane as a sustained-dosing adjunct over 4-week cycles.
Olympic detection incident (1996) — First recorded athletic-doping detection of bromantane in Russian athletes at Atlanta Olympics. Historical significance rather than clinical.
No Western-registered clinical trial — No Phase I / II / III trial of bromantane has been completed under Western regulatory review.
Community use — Nootropic community reports describe sustained energy, improved motivation, reduced anxiety, improved stress tolerance, and lack of rebound fatigue or dependence on discontinuation. These are uncontrolled but broadly consistent with the Russian clinical dataset.

Reconstitution & Storage

Nothing to reconstitute: bromantane is taken by mouth. In Russia it is sold as Ladasten tablets; elsewhere it is sold as research-chemical powder. No document read for this page gives storage conditions or a shelf life for either.

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Side Effects & Risks

Important

Approved in Russia as Ladasten; not reviewed by the FDA. WADA bans it at all times as a stimulant, S6 (Prohibited List 2026). Consult a licensed healthcare provider.

What the trials reported — In the neurasthenia trial, ladasten reduced asthenic symptoms faster than placebo and no withdrawal syndrome followed the course (Neznamov et al., 2009). The multicentre asthenia study reported the same tolerability picture (Voznesenskaia et al., 2010).
Sleep — No study read for this page measured sleep on bromantane.
No dependence / no withdrawal — The neurasthenia trial reported no withdrawal syndrome after a 28-day course (Neznamov et al., 2009).
Drug interactions — None has been studied.
Pregnancy / lactation / pediatric — No human safety data.
WADA ban — WADA’s 2026 Prohibited List names bromantan under S6, stimulants (Prohibited List 2026).

Bloodwork & Monitoring

No trial, label or guideline read for this page sets monitoring for bromantane. The Russian trials rated asthenic symptoms on clinical scales and followed patients for a week after the course (Neznamov et al., 2009; Voznesenskaia et al., 2010).

Commonly Stacked With

No published study has combined bromantane with another compound.

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Legal Status

Current Status — April 2026

Bromantane is registered in Russia under the brand name Ladasten (Ладастен), as an asthenic agent (Russian drug register, 2012); a 2012 pharmacology review describes it as “certified in Russia as a drug” (Oliynyk & Oh, 2012). The year it was registered is not in any source read for this page: the Russian drug register gives the manufacturer and a product text the maker approved in 2012, but no approval date, and Russia’s state register could not be read, because it requires a captcha. Its two published Russian trials appeared in 2009 and 2010 (Neznamov et al., 2009; Voznesenskaia et al., 2010).

Bromantane is not FDA-approved in the United States. It has not been subject to IND / NDA submission and is not in active Western clinical development. It is available through research-chemical channels and via personal import from Russia and some CIS jurisdictions, in a legal gray zone that varies by US state and federal interpretation.

Bromantane is banned by WADA under category S6 (Stimulants) and has been on the prohibited list in various forms since 1997, following its detection in Russian athletes at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Testing methodology is well-established.

Bromantane is not on any FDA 503A bulk-substance list. It was not among the 12 peptides FDA removed from Category 2 in April 2026 (FDA 503A categories list, April 22, 2026). Its eventual US availability, if any, would require a sponsor-driven NDA — which is not publicly happening.

Cost & Access

Bromantane is not approved for human use in the United States. It is available through research suppliers for laboratory research purposes only.

Ladasten (the Russian Rx product) is dispensed through Russian pharmacies with a prescription and is widely used in Russian neurology and internal-medicine practice. Personal-use import to the US is not a clean legal path — FDA considers unapproved small-molecule drugs to be unapproved new drugs regardless of approval status elsewhere. We could not verify that any US pharmacy compounds bromantane, and it has no basis to be compounded: it is not FDA-approved, FDA’s substance registry lists no USP monograph for it, and it is not on FDA’s 503A bulks list or in any 503A or 503B nomination category.

Bromantane was not among the 12 peptides FDA removed from Category 2 in April 2026, and FDA’s 503A categories list, updated May 14, 2026, does not name it (FDA 503A categories list, April 22 and May 14, 2026). Absent a sponsor pursuing US NDA — which is not publicly occurring — bromantane will remain outside mainstream US clinical availability for the foreseeable future.

Availability and pricing vary by country and prescription status. Kalios does not sell compounds.

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References

Grekhova TV, Gaĭnetdinov RR, Sotnikova TD, Krasnykh LM, Kudrin VS, Sergeeva SA, Morozov IS, Rayevskiĭ KS. The effect of bromantane, a new immunostimulant with psychostimulating action, on release and metabolism of dopamine in the dorsal striatum of freely moving rats: a microdialysis study. Biull Eksp Biol Med. 1995;119(3):302-304. PMID: 7795203.
Mikhaylova MV, Bukanova JV, Solntseva EI, Skrebitsky VG. Mechanisms of action of bromantan, adaptogen and actoprotector. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2007;107(Suppl 2):32-36. (Russian-language primary mechanistic paper.)
Morozov IS, Petrov VI, Sergeeva SA. Pharmacology of adamantanes. Volgograd: Volgograd Medical Academy; 2001. (Foundational Russian-language pharmacology monograph covering the adamantane-derivative actoprotector class including bromantane.)
Vakhitova YV, Yamidanov RS, Vakhitov VA, Seredenin SB. The effect of ladasten on gene expression in the rat brain. Dokl Biochem Biophys. 2005;401:150-153. PMID: 15999825.
Kudrin VS, Sergeeva SA, Krasnykh LM, Miroshnichenko II, Grekhova TV, Gainetdinov RR. The effect of bromantan on the dopamin- and serotoninergic systems of the rat brain. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 1995;58(4):8-11. PMID: 7580761. (Russian-language primary preclinical paper on neurotransmitter synthesis effects.)
Oliynyk S, Oh S. The pharmacology of actoprotectors: practical application for improvement of mental and physical performance. Biomol Ther (Seoul). 2012;20(5):446-456. PMID: 24009833. (English-language review of the actoprotector class with bromantane as central example: “bromantane (commercial name: Ladasten; certified in Russia as a drug)”; no registration year given.)
Neznamov GG, Siuniakov SA, Teleshova SE, Chumakov DV, Reutova MA, Siuniakov TS, Mametova LE, Dorofeeva OA, Grishin SA. Ladasten, the new drug with psychostimulant and anxiolytic actions in treatment of neurasthenia (results of the comparative clinical study with placebo). Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2009;109(5):20-26. PMID: 19491814.
Spasov AA, Bugaeva LI, Iezhitsa IN. Toxicological profile of adamantane derivatives. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 2001;64(2):77-80. (Toxicological characterization of the adamantane-derivative class.)
World Anti-Doping Agency. Prohibited List. International Standard. S6 Stimulants: bromantan. WADA. Various editions 2004–2026. (Continuous inclusion on the prohibited list since inception.)
Vakhitova IuV, Iamidanov RS, Seredinin SB. Ladasten induces the expression of genes regulating dopamine biosynthesis in various structures of rat brain. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 2004;67(4):7-11. PMID: 15500036.
Vakhitova IuV, Sadovnikov SV, Iamidanov RS, Seredenin SB. Cytosine demethylation in the tyrosine hydroxylase gene promoter in the hypothalamus cells of the rat brain under the action of an aminoadamantane derivative Ladasten. Genetika. 2006;42(7):968-975. PMID: 16915929.
Voznesenskaia TG, Fokina NM, Iakhno NN. Treatment of asthenic disorders in patients with psychoautonomic syndrome: results of a multicenter study on efficacy and safety of ladasten. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2010;110(5 Pt 1):17-26. PMID: 21322821.
Burnat P, Payen A, Le Brumant-Payen C, Hugon M, Ceppa F. Bromontan, a new doping agent. Lancet. 1997;350(9082):963-964. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63310-7. PMID: 9314900.
RLS (Register of Medicinal Products of Russia). Ладастен® (Ladasten), tablets 50 mg and 100 mg: composition, dosage and manufacturer (ЗАО «Фармацевтическая фирма «ЛЕККО»); text approved by the manufacturer in 2012. rlsnet.ru/drugs/ladasten-36046. Read October 11, 2026.
Morozov IS, Efimova LP, Kryzhanovskii SA. The effect of bromantane on the cardiovascular and sympathetic-adrenal systems in animals. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 2000;63(1):33-36. PMID: 10763107.
Morozov IS, Kleimenova NN. The effect of bromantane on the physical work capacity of laboratory animals. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 1998;61(6):51-53. PMID: 9929819.
FDA. Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Use in Compounding Under Section 503A of the FD&C Act (503A categories list), versions updated April 15, April 22 and May 14, 2026. fda.gov/media/94155/download. Read October 3, 2026. (Notice that 12 peptides would leave Category 2 because their nominations were withdrawn; their removal; GHK-Cu, except injectable, back in Category 1.)