Modafanil

BACKGROUND: Fatigue is common in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). It occurs at every stage of PD and affects quality of life. Fatigue severity worsens over time as PD progresses, and it is associated with other non-motor symptoms such as apathy, depression, sleep disorder, and cognitive dysfunction. PURPOSE: In this literature review, I discuss the measurement and pathophysiology of fatigue and fatigability. There are no evidence-based treatments for fatigue and fatigability available...

Narcolepsy is characterised by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy and has a prevalence of 25 per 100,000. We suspect this is higher than presently seen in the Republic of Ireland. We aimed to calculate the Irish prevalence of Narcolepsy and to examine current management practices. We conducted an online survey of respiratory physicians, neurologists, paediatric neurologists, and psychiatrists with an interest in sleep disorders (73% response rate). Of this group, a total of 16 physicians managed 180 patients prior to January 2009...

Models of cognitive control posit a key modulatory role for the pontine locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. In nonhuman primates, phasic LC-NE activity confers adaptive adjustments in cortical gain in task-relevant brain networks, and in performance, on a trial-by-trial basis. This model has remained untested in humans. We used the pharmacological agent modafinil to promote low-tonic/high-phasic LC-NE activity in healthy humans performing a cognitive control task during event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)...

INTRODUCTION: Modafanil, a non-amphetamine stimulant, is used for narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and shift work sleep disorder. There is little available information on the toxicity of modafinil overdose. METHOD: We performed a retrospective multi-poison center chart review of patients from 11 states who had a single substance ingestion of modafanil with follow up to a known outcome for the years 2000-2007. Data collected included age, gender, dose ingested, clinical effects, length of hospital stay, and medical outcome...

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia is often associated with chronic disability and poor outcome. In addition to positive symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, and negative symptoms including poverty of speech and blunted affect, schizophrenia is also associated with deficits in cognitive function. It has been increasingly recognized that the severity of cognitive impairment is a major determinant of outcome. Therefore, interventions to improve cognitive function also have the capacity to improve quality of life and social and occupational outcomes...

Fatigue is a very common symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Theoretically, fatigue may be related to neuromodulation by soluble products of the autoimmune process or by disruption of central nervous system pathways necessary for sustained activity, but little empirical evidence supports these possibilities. Amantadine, pemoline, and modafanil improved fatigue in placebo-controlled clinical trials, but these studies all had significant limitations. Difficulty measuring fatigue has impeded studies of its characteristics, mechanisms, and therapeutics...