In addition to promoting wakefulness, modafinil has been shown to enhance cognitive performance in healthy adults. Its effects seem to match stimulants like amphetamine and methylphenidate, but are less potent and lack the speed-accuracy tradeoff seen with these drugs.
Studies have found a single dose of modafinil improves performance on digit span and a sustained attention task. But why would students, soldiers or shift workers voluntarily take a cognitive enhancer that carries risks of dependency?
It’s a Nootropic
Buy Modafinil Australia is used to keep people awake in conditions like narcolepsy and sleep apnea, but is also sold off-label as a “smart drug” for its perceived cognitive enhancing effects. The drug is allegedly used by students, executives and soldiers to stay alert and power through 14-hour work days. Online blogs glow with tales of unwavering focus and superhuman levels of concentration.
But the claims of this “smart drug” are not supported by scientific evidence. In fact, studies that test its ability to improve performance in sleep-deprived individuals find that modafinil has minimal impact.
Moreover, the pharmaceutical drug’s similar mechanisms of action to other stimulant drugs suggest that it has a potential for abuse. This is reflected in its use as an illicit ‘brain doping’ substance, with the chemical and its metabolites regularly detected in wastewater and surface water. This reinforces the need for routine monitoring of the occurrence and removal of nootropics, particularly those prescribed to treat neurological disorders, in wastewater treatment plants. This will help to ensure that environmental risks are adequately assessed.
It’s a Sleep Aid
Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting drug used to treat narcolepsy, but it’s also been taken “off label” by healthy individuals to improve their focus and performance. It’s the “go-pill” of CEOs, millennials and students seeking unwavering concentration. Online blogs glow with success stories of powering through 14-hour work days and cramming for exams on the “smart drug.”
The benefits of modafinil are attributed to its mood-brightening and memory-enhancing properties along with its waking effect. It has been studied for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, ADD/ADHD, depression, idiopathic hypersomnia, myotonic dystrophy, and jet lag.
While Modalert Tablet does enhance cognitive function in sleep-deprived subjects, studies on healthy, non-sleep deprived people have mixed results. Most studies showed no improvements in working memory or flexibility of thought but did show significant improvements in planning and decision-making. Some studies reported insomnia, headache and stomach ache as side effects of modafinil. Rarely, life-threatening rashes have occurred, including Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. These severe skin reactions should be treated with immediate emergency care.
It’s a Booster
Taking Modafinil allows users to achieve more by boosting their cognitive abilities. The drug increases blood flow to parts of the brain associated with memory, learning and problem-solving. This makes it easier to concentrate and focus. It also improves decision-making and risk perception. However, the drug is not without its risks. Long-term use is not recommended, and it could cause headaches, insomnia and depression. In some cases, users have been banned from competition and work after testing positive for modafinil.
In occupational discourses, military metaphors were used to frame the discussion of using modafinil for EDS. It was portrayed as giving troops an advantage over their enemies by keeping them alert, improving their judgment and enabling them to complete tasks.
In recreational discourses, commodity frames were used to posit arguments for pharmaceutical intervention in the sleep-wake cycle (75%). It was constructed as a tool that could be used to beat sleep, a method of potentially eliminating it from one’s life or as a means to enhance one’s abilities. This type of discourse reveals cultural anxieties about the future role of medicine in our society, the kind of bodies that medical technology should be used to modify and the values attached to this use.
It’s a Memory Enhancer
Modafinil is an FDA-approved eugeroic that directly increases cortical catecholamine levels, and indirectly upregulates cerebral serotonin, glutamate, orexin and histamine, while decreasing cerebral gamma-aminobutrytic acid (GABA). It’s also available in generic form and widely used off-label as a cognitive enhancer.
In a series of experiments, modafinil improved performance in a delayed nonmatching to position task, and a serial reversal test, both tests of working memory. A dose-response experiment in rats demonstrated that a low dose of the drug enhances performance in an arithmetic problem-solving task. Modafinil was also found to improve prefrontal cortex activity, as measured by the Stroop interference task in an open-label study of narcolepsy patients.
This evidence has led to the popularity of modafinil among students, soldiers and shift workers who use it off-label for its perceived cognitive enhancing effects. However, there are few studies that have tested whether the drug does improve cognition in healthy subjects who are not sleep-deprived. If the drug does boost cognitive performance in healthy people, this could mark the first time that a pharmaceutical nootropic has been shown to have legitimate cognitive enhancement benefits.
It’s a Focus Enhancer
Originally created to treat narcolepsy, modafinil has been used off-label as a cognitive enhancer by entrepreneurs and students to help them stay focused and productive. There is also a growing body of evidence that it can boost performance and reduce procrastination.
However, it is important to note that modafinil does not improve all cognitive functions equally. A recent review of 24 studies found that it improved planning, decision-making, and learning for more complex thought processes but not for simpler tasks like digit span or sustained attention.
In addition, it can increase impulsivity in some individuals and lead to addiction if taken in high doses. Furthermore, it may be difficult to determine how much of an improvement in cognition modafinil actually makes because many studies use university students who are generally highly intelligent and therefore would likely score well on all tests even without the aid of medication. It is a powerful drug that can improve concentration and focus, but there are many other ways to do so including getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, or practicing mindfulness.
