alfetamine alfetamine alfetamine, or alpha-allyl-phenethylamine, is a chemical compound of the phenethylamine family. it was briefly investigated as a possible antidepressant in the early 1970s. its activity profile was said to be very similar to imipramine and amitriptyline, two tricyclic antidepressants. it has now been largely superseded by the newer compounds in this class, and only rarely found in scientific literature. the "alpha" in its name refers to its prodrug form, alfetamine. in addition to being an antidepressant, alfetamine is also a neuroprotective agent that acts as a weak dopamine antagonist and a high affinity κ-opioid receptor agonist. alfetamineclinical dataother namesalfetadrinumatc codenoneidentifiers iupac name 1-phenylpent-4-en-2-amine cas number4255-23-6 npubchem cid20254chemspider19080 yuniiq3v87119bpchemblchembl2110598 nchemical and physical dataformulac11h15nmolar mass161.248 g·mol−13d model (jsmol)interactive image smiles nc(cc1ccccc1)c\c=c inchi inchi=1s/c11h15n/c1-2-6-11(12)9-10-7-4-3-5-8-10/h2-5,7-8,11h,1,6,9,12h2 ykey:wqkxqjyczmwosd-uhfffaoysa-n y ny (what is this?) (verify) alfetamine was synthesized by kenji tsukada and colleagues at shinshu university and dow chemical company in the 1960s and early 1970s.