Desoxypipradrol, also known as
2- diphenylmethylpiperidine (
2-DPMP) a Class A drug under Schedule I of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations
2001.
Desoxypipradrol is a drug developed by Ciba in the 1950s1 which acts as a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI).
2Desoxypipradrol is closely related on a structural level to the compounds methylphenidate and pipradrol, all three of which share a similar pharmacological action.
2 Of these three piperidines, desoxypipradrol has the longest elimination half-life, as it is a highly lipophilic molecule
lacking polar functional groups that are typically targeted by metabolic enzymes, giving it an extremely
long duration of action when compared to most psychostimulants. Methylphenidate, on the other
hand, is a
short-acting compound, as it possesses a methyl-
ester moiety that is easily cleaved, forming a highly polar
acid group, while pipradrol is intermediate in duration, possessing a hydroxyl group which can be conjugated (e.g. with glucuronide) to increase its hydrophilicity and facilitate excretion, but no easily metabolized groups.