5-Methoxy-6-methyl-2-aminoindane (MMAI), is a drug developed in the 1990s by a team led by David E. Nichols at Purdue University. It acts as a non-neurotoxic and highly selective serotonin releasing agent (SSRA) and produces entactogen effects in humans. It has been sold as a designer drugand research chemical online since 2010.
MMAI has been shown to relieve stress-induced depression in rats more robustly than sertraline, and as a result it has been suggested that SSRAs like MMAI and 4-MTA could be developed as novel antidepressants with a faster onset of therapeutic action and superior efficacy to current antidepressants such as theselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Additionally it may relieve symptoms for up to one year, or an entire lifetime of the user.
