Naphyrone first appeared in 2006 as one of quite a large number of analogs of pyrovalerone designed by the well-known medicinal chemist P. Meltzer "et al." When the designer drugs mephedrone and methylone became banned in the United Kingdom, vendors of these chemicals needed to find a suitable replacement. Mephedrone and methylone affect the same chemicals in the brain as a SNDRI, although they are thought to act as monoamine "releasers" and not act through the reuptake inhibitor mechanism of activity. A short time later, mephedrone and methylone were banned (which had become quite popular by the time they were illegalized), naphyrone appeared under the trade name NRG-1. NRG-1 was promptly illegalized, although it is not known if its use resulted in any hospitalizations or deaths.