Is Deanol Worth Taking for Memory?

Deanol was tested in older adults because researchers thought it might improve memory through the brain’s cholinergic system. The idea did not hold up well in practice.

In one study involving people with dementia, deanol left memory and other cognitive scores unchanged. A placebo-controlled trial in older adults without dementia also found no benefit for learning, reaction time or sustained attention. A later case report raised a separate concern about severe involuntary movements after long-term use.

Deanol and DMAE Are the Same Compound

Deanol is another name for dimethylaminoethanol. Modern supplement labels usually shorten this to DMAE, while older medical papers tend to use deanol or 2-dimethylaminoethanol.

The studies discussed here used pharmaceutical deanol. Modern products may use a salt form such as DMAE bitartrate, so the amount of elemental DMAE may not match the dose printed on the label.

Why Was Deanol Studied for Memory?

Interest in deanol came from research on acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory and learning. At the time, reduced cholinergic activity was being investigated as a possible contributor to cognitive decline.

Deanol was proposed as a way to increase the availability of choline or acetylcholine in the brain. Even in the 1970s, however, researchers were unsure whether it acted as a direct acetylcholine precursor. Animal studies had reported increases in brain acetylcholine after prolonged administration, but the human trials still needed to show that this translated into better cognition.

Deanol Did Not Improve Memory in the Dementia Study

A 1977 study gave deanol to 14 outpatients aged 62 to 80. The participants had what the researchers described as organic brain syndrome, including senile dementia or cerebral arteriosclerosis, ranging from very mild to moderately severe.

Treatment lasted four weeks. Doses started at 300 to 600 mg per day and were gradually increased to as much as 1,800 mg per day. Because the study was open-label, everyone knew deanol was being given. There was no placebo group.

The assessment included memory for faces, names and digits, perceptual speed, reaction time, finger-tapping speed and trail-making performance. None of these cognitive measures improved significantly.

The study therefore failed on the outcome that mattered most: deanol did not improve memory or broader cognitive performance in participants who already had measurable impairment.

Behavioural Ratings Improved Without Better Cognition

Although cognitive scores remained unchanged, clinicians rated 10 of the 14 participants as globally improved. Seven were considered minimally improved and three moderately improved.

The clearest changes were reduced anxiety and greater motivation or initiative. Depression and irritability showed weaker trends.

Those findings are difficult to separate from the study design. With no placebo group, changes in mood, engagement or clinician perception could have influenced the ratings. The disconnect between the behavioural scales and the cognitive tests also matters: participants may have seemed more alert or motivated without remembering more or thinking faster.

Deanol Did Not Improve Cognition in the Placebo-Controlled Study

A 1979 study used a stronger design. Eleven men aged 54 to 71 were randomly assigned to deanol or placebo under double-blind conditions. They did not have dementia, although some had shown age-related decline on a processing-speed measure.

The deanol group took 900 mg per day for 21 days. Researchers tested word learning and recall, recognition, simple and complex reaction time, sustained attention and continuous digit processing.

Performance remained essentially unchanged. Deanol produced no advantage in word learning, recall, recognition speed, reaction time or sustained attention.

The result matched the earlier dementia study despite the different population and stronger control conditions. Deanol affected neither memory nor the broader slowing of information processing associated with ageing.

Deanol Changed Brain Responses Without Improving Performance

The 1979 study also recorded EEG activity and evoked potentials. Some evoked-potential amplitudes increased during deanol treatment, and certain response latencies changed.

Those physiological effects were not accompanied by better performance.

A change in electrical brain activity can show that a compound is biologically active, but it does not establish that the effect is useful. In this study, the participants’ brains responded differently while their memory, attention and reaction time stayed the same.

Did Deanol Affect Mood or Well-Being?

The behavioural findings were not limited to the dementia study. In the placebo-controlled trial, most participants taking deanol reportedly described a general sense of well-being.

That observation was not supported by a dedicated mood scale or a larger antidepressant trial. It also appeared without any cognitive improvement. Taken together, the two studies hint at a possible effect on mood, motivation or subjective state, but they do not establish a reliable benefit.

What Side Effects Were Reported?

The four-week dementia study reported no adverse effects, and there were no significant changes in vital signs, laboratory tests or ECG findings.

In the placebo-controlled study, one participant stopped taking deanol on the second day because of headache. The headache resolved within 24 hours after withdrawal.

These short treatment periods provide little information about use over months or years.

The Long-Term Dyskinesia Case

A 1991 case report described a 58-year-old woman who had taken deanol for essential tremor for about ten years. Her daily dose had ranged from 300 to 900 mg.

She later developed severe involuntary movements involving the face, mouth and respiratory muscles. Symptoms included repeated lip movements, chewing, grimacing, abnormal vocalisation, gasping and respiratory distress. The breathing problems became severe enough that intubation was considered.

Her condition improved gradually after deanol was stopped, although some involuntary movements remained. The authors considered deanol a possible cause because it had been the only continuously used drug over the preceding decade and symptoms partly eased after withdrawal. They could not rule out the contribution of her underlying movement disorder or earlier medication exposure.

The report does not show that dyskinesia is a common reaction. It does show that the reassuring short-term trial data cannot be extended confidently to long-term use.

Limits of the Evidence

The two efficacy studies included only 25 participants in total. One was an uncontrolled trial in people with dementia. The other was placebo-controlled but included just 11 men. Neither lasted longer than four weeks.

The participants were also older adults. These studies do not answer whether DMAE improves focus or productivity in younger healthy users.

Their relevance lies in the claims they tested directly: memory, learning, reaction time and cognitive performance. Across both studies, those outcomes did not improve.

Bottom Line

Deanol was tested as a memory aid because of its proposed effects on the cholinergic system. The human results did not support that use.

The dementia study found no improvement across a broad set of cognitive tests. The placebo-controlled study found no benefit for learning, recall, reaction time or sustained attention. Behavioural ratings and electrical brain responses changed in some cases, but neither translated into better cognition.

The evidence is small and dated, but it gives little reason to take deanol specifically for memory. The later dyskinesia report adds a long-term safety concern to an already unconvincing case for benefit.

FAQs

Is deanol the same as DMAE?

Yes. Deanol is an older name for dimethylaminoethanol, commonly abbreviated as DMAE.

Did deanol improve memory in people with dementia?

No measurable improvement was found. Memory and other cognitive test scores remained unchanged after four weeks of treatment.

Did deanol improve memory in older adults without dementia?

No. The placebo-controlled study found no benefit for word learning, recall, recognition or other cognitive tasks.

Did deanol improve focus or reaction time?

The placebo-controlled trial found no meaningful improvement in simple or complex reaction time, sustained attention or continuous performance.

Why did deanol change brain signals without improving cognition?

The drug altered some evoked-potential measurements, but those changes were not accompanied by better task performance. Biological activity and cognitive benefit are not the same thing.

Can deanol cause tardive dyskinesia?

A 1991 case report described severe orofacial and respiratory dyskinesia after long-term deanol use. The report raised a possible association but could not prove causation or establish how often the reaction occurs.

Were the study doses high?

The dementia study used up to 1,800 mg per day. The placebo-controlled study used 900 mg per day. The long-term case involved doses between 300 and 900 mg per day.

Is DMAE bitartrate the same as the deanol used in these studies?

DMAE bitartrate contains DMAE bound to tartaric acid. The papers identify deanol as the active compound but do not show that modern DMAE bitartrate products are equivalent in dose, formulation or absorption.

References

Ferris, S. H., Sathananthan, G., Gershon, S., & Clark, C. (1977). Senile dementia: Treatment with deanol. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 25(6), 241–244. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1977.tb00407.x

Haug, B. A., & Holzgraefe, M. (1991). Orofacial and respiratory tardive dyskinesia: Potential side effects of 2-dimethylaminoethanol (deanol)? European Neurology, 31(6), 423–425. https://doi.org/10.1159/000116708

Marsh, G. R., & Linnoila, M. (1979). The effects of deanol on cognitive performance and electrophysiology in elderly humans. Psychopharmacology, 66(1), 99–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00431997