EPH

Description

Ethylphenidate (EPH) is a psychostimulant and a close analog of methylphenidate.

Ethylphenidate acts as both a dopamine reuptake inhibitor and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, meaning it effectively boosts the levels of the norepinephrine and dopamine neurotransmitters in the brain, by binding to, and partially blocking the transporter proteins that normally remove those monoamines from the synaptic cleft.

However, considering the close similarities between ethylphenidate and methylphenidate and the fact that methylphenidate, like cocaine, actually does not primarily act as a "classical" reuptake inhibitor, but rather as an "inverse agonist at the DAT" (also called a "negative allosteric modulator at the DAT"),[1] it is at least very likely that ethylphenidate also primarily acts as an inverse DAT agonist instead of (or at least only secondarily) as a classical reuptake inhibitor (which could be called a "competitive antagonist at the DAT" using a similar terminology as "negative allosteric modulator at the DAT", which per definition means that its mechanism is non-competitive).

There have been anecdotal reports of a perforated septum resulting from even just a few uses of ethylphenidate by insufflation (snorting). Some users also report the drug is extremely painful to insufflate