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The Effects of Modafinil in People with a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

Modafinil is a central nerve stimulant (CNS) eugeroic that directly increases cortical catecholamine levels, indirectly upregulates cerebral serotonin, glutamate, orexin, and histamine levels, and indirectly decreases cerebral gamma-aminobutyric acid levels. It can also enhance attention, executive functions, and learning, and enhance task enjoyment and performance on cognitive tests of planning and working memory in healthy non-sleep deprived individuals. Besides, modafinil can also maintain wakefulness, memory and executive functions in sleep deprived healthy individuals.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to understand reality. Its causes include environmental and genetic factors. And cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia, it persists during symptomatic remissions and cognitive impairment can predict functional outcome in chronic schizophrenia.

This review sought to describe the use and effects of the drug modafinil; specifically, it presented the research of the impact of modafinil for people with diagnosis and experience of schizophrenia. In fact, some studies have shown that compared to other central nerve stimulant (CNS) drugs, modafinil has a low risk of dependency and few negative side effects and is safe, well-tolerated and does not worsen other symptom dimensions. In addition, some reviews have shown that modafinil can positively impact on cognitive function in people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. There is emerging evidence for the positive impact of modafinil on negative symptoms, functioning, quality of life, wellbeing, and body mass index (BMI) for people with schizophrenia.

In short, research has shown that modafinil can enhance cognitive function in schizophrenia and has potential to enhance real life functioning and reduce negative symptoms. However, a well-designed and sufficiently large randomized control trial is required to test the potential of the impact of modafinil in the lives of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Future research should report participant’s perspective of the value of modafinil connected to what concerns them and what they want to achieve in their lives.

Article by Christopher A. Griffiths and Alessandra Girardi, from UK.

Full access: http://mrw.so/10Y0qa
Image by Sara Zidan, from Flickr-cc.

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