Fipexide is a psychoactive drug

Psychoactive drug

A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...

 of the piperazine

Piperazine

Piperazine is an organic compound that consists of a six-membered ring containing two opposing nitrogen atoms. Piperazine exists as small alkaline deliquescent crystals with a saline taste....

 chemical class which was developed in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 1983. It was used as a nootropic

Nootropic

Nootropics , also referred to as smart drugs, brain steroids, memory enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration...

 drug in Italy and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, mainly for the treatment of senile dementia, but is no longer in common use due to the occurrence of rare adverse drug reactions including fever

Fever

Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

 and hepatitis

Hepatitis

Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...

. Fipexide is similar in action to other nootropic drugs such as piracetam

Piracetam

Piracetam is a nootropic drug. Piracetam's chemical name is 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine acetamide; it shares the same 2-oxo-pyrrolidone base structure with 2-oxo-pyrrolidine carboxylic acid . Piracetam is a cyclic derivative of GABA. It is one of the group of racetams...

 and is structurally similar to another more well-known nootropic, centrophenoxine

Centrophenoxine

Meclofenoxate , also known as centrophenoxine, is a drug used to treat the symptoms of senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease. It is an ester of dimethylethanolamine and 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid . DMAE is a natural substance, found especially in fish...

. Chemically, it is an amide union of parachlorophenoxyacetate

Parachlorophenoxyacetate

4-Chlorophenoxyacetic acid or Parachlorophenoxyacetate is a synthetic compound similar to chemicals in a group of plant hormones called auxins. Esterized with dimethylethanolamine it forms centrophenoxine....

 and methylenedioxybenzylpiperazine

Methylenedioxybenzylpiperazine

1-piperazine is a psychoactive drug of the piperazine chemical class related to benzylpiperazine...

, and notably, has been shown to metabolize to the latter, which plays a significant role in its effects.