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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