Has anyone tried Modafinil?

[Alvin2]

Thought I would dust off this thread.

MY Doctor wants me taking 50 mgs of Modafinil and is really pushing me to take it.

This paper suggests that could be dangerous to blood sugar, sleep cycle and related type issues.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X2030036X

Memory improvement by modafinil at cost of metabolic hazards? A study to decipher the benefits and risks of modafinil in rats

Its a next generation stimulant.
To a doctor fatigue + stimulant should equal success.

You can try it for a week or two if you want but its not going to help ME issues.
It just keeps you awake, in those without medical fatigue issues it is often said to work no better than coffee.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

There is also some research that it can:

improve vagus nerve tone

anti inflammatory

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Antiinflammatory effects:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32311496/

Brain Behav Immun. 2020 Aug;88:878-886.

Modulating the immune response with the wake-promoting drug modafinil: A potential therapeutic approach for inflammatory disorders

Abstract
Modafinil is a psychostimulant drug approved by the FDA primarily for the treatment of sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep apnea. Several documented but not yet approved uses for modafinil have been described over the last 30 years, including alleviating fatigue in neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. Recent evidence has suggested that modafinil may have an immunomodulatory effect. Here, we review the different effects of modafinil treatment in animal models of brain inflammation and peripheral immune function.

We conclude that there is unequivocal evidence of an anti-inflammatory effect of modafinil in experimental animal models of brain inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders, including systemic inflammation and methamphetamine-induced neuroinflammation, Parkinson's disease, brain ischemia, and multiple sclerosis. Modafinil acts on resident glial cells and infiltrating immune cells, negatively affecting both innate and adaptive immune responses in the brain.

We also review the outcomes of modafinil treatment on peripheral immune function. The results of studies on this subject are still controversial and far from conclusive, but point to a new avenue of research in relation to peripheral inflammation. The data reviewed here raise the possibility of modafinil being used as adjuvant treatment for neurological disorders in which inflammation plays an important role.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

reporting on my n=1 experiment with Low dose Modafinil (50 mgs)

Day 1: I was feeling fairly good, ME wise, so I decided to try the 50 mgs around noon.

I felt a tad more "alert" and my eyes were- sort of focusing more on things (eyes and brain tend to blur together)

I did not overdo it, I was very careful to NOT exert.

Mild dull head ache later (having trouble getting my BP down into an acceptable range, I was on two BP pills also)

Day 2: zero desire to take the Modafinil.

Eyes totally blurred and I'd just as soon go back to sleep.

Uh oh. I feel mildly crashed from the Day 1 experiment.

NEW PLAN: maybe I need to start out by only taking it every third day (in case this is mild PEM)

Meanwhile, my grown daughter asked me many questions about the pill yet I feel I can't really answer them.

___
Subjectivity is a problem assessing experiments. I'd benefit from say using a watch to determine my actual HRV.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Today after the experiment, I also feel really depressed. I don't normally feel this type of bottom of the pit type depressed.

 

[hapl808]

Today after the experiment, I also feel really depressed. I don't normally feel this type of bottom of the pit type depressed.

That describes how I feel after any crash (cognitive or physical), so sounds like even the low dose caused some level of crash. Even a partial crash makes me feel impending doom even if I don't get the full body poisoned feeling.

 

[hapl808]

Let me also reiterate - I despise this illness. All of this discussion and carefully parsing the difference between being able to focus your eyes better (which I'm intimately familiar) and whether one low-dose of a mild pill changes your mental state. It all sounds so ridiculous, makes me a bit pessimistic as to whether it'll every be taken seriously. Feels like one of those things that you cannot possibly understand without experiencing it.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

some level of crash

Yes, crashy- just a bit atypical/ I'm a bit less poisoned or flu-like feeling and more dull flat and blurry

It all sounds so ridiculous

Its ridiculous

you cannot possibly understand without experiencing it.

I was thinking I'd "try" lions mane (pending further research) My husband handed me a whole bottle from His Stash and within an hour I found the PR post of a compilation of side effects reported by users from taking one or two capsules of that.

Even a partial crash

My husband notices sometimes- so today he noticed I had to totally give it up this afternoon and lie across the bed and take a nap for two hours (our version of nap). I've not had to do that in two months.

DANG IT : modafinil crash.

 

[Gingergrrl]

Today after the experiment, I also feel really depressed. I don't normally feel this type of bottom of the pit type depressed.

I am so sorry to hear this! Do you think that part of why you feel more depressed is from the constant rain that we are having? I am noticing that I feel depressed from the length and severity of the current rain/dark/cold which we don't normally have here and wondered if it was a factor for you?

 

[SpacePenguin]

I tried modafinil and armodafinil but if anything it made things slightly worse.

I started modafinil at 50mg per day for 2 weeks. I then went up to 100mg for 32 days. I didn't notice much effect at either dose. At 200mg "results were a bit bad, felt dazed and a bit throbby all over body and in head, bit more foggy, bit more headache" (from my contemporaneous notes) and I stopped soon after that.

I started armodafinil at 25mg: "got headache and felt spaced out, wired, more achy from about 30-60m after taking Armodafinil - was quite bad for maybe 3h and then wore off". Those side-effects diminished over the next 2 days. I stayed at 25mg for 45 days without noticing any other effects, positive or negative. Then I took the armodafinil up to 50mg and "got some extra headache, spaced out feeling, but not as bad as when I started at half tab" and after 4 days of that, I stopped it.

I was sceptical from the beginning that modafinil or armodafinil could help sicne they correct narcolepsy, when my problem is almost the opposite. I basically never feel sleepy during the day (yet I am constantly tired in mind and body) and even at night time I don't get as sleepy as readily as I should.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

wondered if it was a factor for you?

I don't think so, I love the rain. Makes it ok to gaze out the window and stay home. (like I was doing anyway)

MODAFINIL the day after:

tinnitus is back (mild)

(example of not noticing it had backed off, until it returned).

I started armodafinil

interesting, I'll have to check that out, never heard of.

My doctor said the headache is from my BP being high (which it sometimes is in the afternoons despite BP pills)

 

[hapl808]

When my diastolic even going above 80-85, I get the worst headaches.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I get the worst headaches.

I feel really lucky. I hardly ever get an ACTUAL headache. (but instead its a sort of constant, dull depreciating lower brain stem/neck/ syndrome.)

I think I'm just really used to it.