Supplement
Choline donor and phospholipid precursor.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Superscript reference numbers link to the Sources bibliography.
Composite Rating
Blends evidence depth, community direction, safety friction, and completeness.
Evidence Intensity
100/100
High depth from human/RCT/meta counts
Community Direction
7
Mixed / Neutral • confidence Moderate
Safety Friction
100/100
High signal from adverse/interaction markers
Data Completeness
100%
Studies 12 • mentions 15 • links 24
Not medical advice. This product is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
FDA disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Dietary supplements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Results may vary. Not intended for use by pregnant or nursing women, individuals under 18, or those with known medical conditions without physician consultation.
If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.
Goal alignment: Focus, Energy.[164,168,391, etc.]
Dose guide: Human-study daily dose: 500 mg-1000 mg/day (higher-confidence extraction from PubMed abstracts)..[164,168,391, etc.]
Category
Nootropic
Evidence Tier
HIGH
Daily Guide
Human-study daily dose: 500 mg-1000 mg/day (higher-confidence extraction from PubMed abstracts).
Clinical Depth
Humans: 39 • RCTs: 10 • Meta: 3
Cohort / Real-World
Cohort signals: 0
Safety Markers
Adverse signals: 73 • Interactions: 28
Freshness, trend, and study timeline for this item
Status
Trend
↑ Growing evidence base
Depth
72 total studies · 2 recent
Timeline
Animal-only studies
161
Safety adverse signals
73
Total indexed
72
Human studies
39
In vitro / tissue
37
Interaction signals
28
Weighted direction score: 7 (Mixed / Neutral)
High when >=2 human meta-analyses, or >=5 human RCTs with substantial human literature volume.
Animal-only studies
161
Safety adverse signals
73
Total indexed
72
Human studies
39
In vitro / tissue
37
Interaction signals
28
Randomized trials
10
Meta-analyses
3
Distribution of evidence by study design strength
Evidence Strength: High
Composite of study volume, RCTs, and meta-analyses
PMID 36678257 • 2023 Jan 12
Is Citicoline Effective in Preventing and Slowing Down Dementia?-A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis.
Nutrients
Open PubMedPMID 39026098 • 2025 Jan
Nutraceuticals and phytoceuticals in the treatment of schizophrenia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis "Nutra NMA SCZ".
Mol Psychiatry
Open PubMedPMID 19351232 • 2009 Apr
Efficacy of citicoline as an acute stroke treatment.
Expert Opin Pharmacother
Open PubMedPMID 33978188 • 2021 Aug 7
Citicoline and Memory Function in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.
J Nutr
Open PubMedPMID 26179181 • 2019 Jan
The Effect of Citicoline Supplementation on Motor Speed and Attention in Adolescent Males.
J Atten Disord
Open PubMedPMID 30457668 • 2019 Feb
A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Citicoline in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res
Open PubMedPMID 22974472 • 2012 Dec 20
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of citicoline for bipolar and unipolar depression and methamphetamine dependence.
J Affect Disord
Open PubMedPMID 30738409 • 2020 Feb 1
Matching early arterial oxygenation to long-term outcome in severe traumatic brain injury: target values.
J Neurosurg
Open PubMedPMID 25315828 • 2014 Dec
CDP-choline: effects of the procholine supplement on sensory gating and executive function in healthy volunteers stratified for low, medium and high P50 suppression.
J Psychopharmacol
Open PubMedPMID 33053828 • 2020 Oct 12
Application of Citicoline in Neurological Disorders: A Systematic Review.
Nutrients
Open PubMedPMID 40054542 • 2025 Apr
Choline metabolism in ischemic stroke: An underappreciated "two-edged sword".
Pharmacol Res
Open PubMedPMID 33730306 • 2021 May
[The role of citicoline in glaucoma].
Ophthalmologe
Open PubMedBenefit reports: 7
Adverse reports: 5
No-effect reports: 0
Mixed reports: 3
Unclear reports: 0
Signal confidence: 0.48
Benefits
Adverse
No Effect
Generally perceived as cleaner than some stimulant stacks. | Step2: Moderate positive empirical signal; apply a light priority boost.
Reddit evidence: 5 mentions (confidence 0.48) across MTHFR, covidlonghaulers, JordanPeterson, againstdysphoria.
Amazon signal: 0 products scanned (confidence 0.00).
GNC signal: 0 products scanned (confidence 0.00) [BLOCKED].
PerimeterX / captcha block encountered.
Search fetch failed: Failed to fetch after retries: https://old.reddit.com/search.json?raw_json=1&sort=relevance&t=year&limit=12&q=%22citicoline%22%20(supplement%20OR%20dosage%20OR%20stack%20OR%20side%20effects%20OR%20review)%20(subreddit%3ASupplements%20OR%20subreddit%3ANootropics%20OR%20subreddit%3ABiohackers%20OR%20subreddit%3Alongevity%20OR%20subreddit%3ANutrition%20OR%20subreddit%3AHubermanLab%20OR%20subreddit%3ASleep%20OR%20subreddit%3AFitness%20OR%20subreddit%3Aketoscience%20OR%20subreddit%3AStackAdvice)
Use adverse/interactions PubMed signal counts for screening; perform clinician review before high-dose or multi-drug stack use.
ODS fact sheet linked for safety review.
Human-study daily dose signal: 500 mg-1000 mg/day (confidence HIGH).
Extracted from 4 dosing mentions across 3 PubMed studies (mg/day).
Imported legacy community score: 8.0/10 (heuristic mapping confidence 1.00).
Imported legacy monthly cost signal: ~$22.00.
Legacy community note: Highly regarded in nootropic community as the best choline source. Clean, focused cognitive enhancement. Users report improved verbal fluency, memory, and focus. Preferred over Alpha-GPC by many for better side effect profile.
post • r/MTHFR • unclear
MTHFR: A Supplement Stack Approach This post describes a plan for implementing a nutrient/supplement stack to address MTHFR. The plan is in phases and incrementally ramps up over time, as it is quite common for people to have sensitivities…
Open mentionpost • r/covidlonghaulers • benefit
My Complete Supplement Protocol (I'm finally able to workout again). After my recent posts about [recovering from PEM](https://www.reddit.com/r/covidlonghaulers/comments/1k271r7/the_best_evidence_for_long_covid_no_more_pem/), [fixing my sh…
Open mentionpost • r/JordanPeterson • unclear
[Letter] Ways/tips to heal neurological damage from benzos/GABAergics [technical neuropsychopharmacodynamics] Hey Professor Peterson & the Peterson family, I've been a biohacker/neurohacker of many years and have some experience with GABAe…
Open mentionpost • r/againstdysphoria • unclear
Anhedonia and the nucleus accumbens: the basics Anhedonia can be broken down into a lacking of two aspects: a 'wanting' of pleasure and the actual feeling itself known as 'liking'. When you experience something pleasurable, which itself is…
Open mentionpost • r/MTHFR • mixed
Citicoline (CDP choline) and serenity I've noticed recently that despite following the MTHFR protocol that I assembled over half a year ago, that I've not been feeling the same equanimity and serenity that I initially felt. At first, I cha…
Open mentionpost • r/immortalists • benefit
These are the top nutrient deficiencies that most people have and significantly shortens their lifespan. Make sure you get these to not die early. Did you know that even people living in modern, wealthy countries are quietly suffering from…
Open mentionpost • r/LongCovidRecovered • mixed
Road to Recovering from Long COVID twice and avoiding it with three subsequent COVID infections This is what I did for my health journey to recover from Long COVID. It's entirely built from scratch using only peer reviewed research article…
Open mentionpost • r/Biohackers • mixed
Took Cognizin (citicoline) by accident in a preworkout , “tunnel focus” like I’ve never felt… anyone tried it? I have ADHD and I accidentally took **Cognizin (citicoline / CDP-choline) 500mg** because it was inside a preworkout I used to b…
Open mentionamazon
Amazon search for CDP-Choline (Citicoline)
Rating: n/a | Reviews: n/a
Open productEvidence Sources
Community Sources
RCT • 2020 • Adults
Small to medium human studies.
Outcome: Potential improvements in attention and psychomotor speed.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
PUBMED • Humans + preclinical triage
Counts aggregated from automated literature sweep and tiering rules.
Outcome: Tier HIGH; humans 39, RCTs 10, meta-analyses 3.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2023 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 36678257 from Nutrients.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2025 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 39026098 from Mol Psychiatry.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2009 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 19351232 from Expert Opin Pharmacother.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2021 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 33978188 from J Nutr.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2019 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 26179181 from J Atten Disord.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2019 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 30457668 from Alcohol Clin Exp Res.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2012 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 22974472 from J Affect Disord.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2020 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 30738409 from J Neurosurg.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2014 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 25315828 from J Psychopharmacol.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2020 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 33053828 from Nutrients.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2025 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 40054542 from Pharmacol Res.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open sourcePUBMED • 2021 • Human evidence curation set
PMID 33730306 from Ophthalmologe.
Outcome: See linked PubMed abstract for methods and outcomes.[1906,2141,2379, etc.]
Open source