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  • N&PD Moderators: Skorpio

How does modafinil work ?

Wikipedia said:
Modafinil, like other stimulants, increases the release of monoamines, specifically the catecholamines norepinephrine and dopamine, from the synaptic terminals.
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I have been using Modafinil since a year ago or even more. Me too can't believe how comes this drugs isn't "properly scheduled". It's a fucking amphetamine, I tell you. If you have no tolerance to the stuff, you can easily stay awake 48 hours without any problems with just 200~300mg.
Add 2 or 3 cans of Red Bull to "the combo" and your willpower (inner force to do things) will go to the roof. You will WANT to work, study, play some video games, talk with anyone, go and take a walk, take a shower, whatever comes to your mind.

Living in South America, I have access to very good Coke, and honestly, I can absolutely assure that I prefer the long lasting "clean" Modafinil. It's expensive as hell, yes, but if you work full-time (like a system administrator), or for the night before an exam, or have to drive all the night non stop for some special reason, or have to study complex stuff from time to time, it's the perfect trap to success.

And I agree about the benzo thing. For some reason, some Clonazepam or Bromazepam will always help me on a Coke comedown; but it won't on a Modafinil comedown: I have to take Diphenhydramine or Carisoprodol. Specially Diphenhydramine, like 100mg, it almost blows away the Modafinil effect (but your heart won't feel very nice, so instead, a gram of Carisoprodol, although it takes a little more to help to comedown, it rests your muscles and it doesn't accelerate your heart rate).

Finally, personally, I think this link can explain in some way "How does modafinil work": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catecholamines
 
Facts about mod from a doctor.

Dr. Beat said:
I have been taking adrafinil and modafinil a few times a week for the last year, and it is a good 'back ground' drug, especailly useful for work.

In the sales pitch on the companies that sell it, they say it is a alpha1-adrenic receptor agonist, but i have read else where that is does not hit that receptor.

One article said it inhibits the GABA neurons that normally slow down the histamine neurons, so basically it causes extra histamine activity.

Does anyone have any presice info on how this drug work?
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Yeah that's bullshit. In reality it's a complicated MOA and involves several systems - GABA is undoubtedly involved though. Check out this awesome blog written by a neuroscientist-come-doctor about it.

http://improveanthony.com/
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil#Pharmacodynamics

Eight years of studies have done plenty of good. Modafinil is a DAT inhibitor and weak D2R-partial agonist with IA = 48%[see note]. D2R is implicated in schizophrenia, and typical antipsychotic drugs are antagonists or weak partial agonists. Aripiprazole is the most well-known D2R partial agonist, with IA probably around 43%. So modafinil is a stimulant with a side-effect just shy of antipsychotic. It also seems to be a good argument for selective DRIs in general; ethylphenidate, the other major example, seems to be a good "productivity" drug, so we can look forward to vanoxerine following in the same vein, perhaps.

In retrospect maybe the similarity of ethylphenidate and modafinil should have been noticed sooner! Oh well, hindsight strikes again.

Note: In attempting to find the IA of aripiprazole, I learned: aripiprazole, which has higher IA than most antipsychotics, was estimated at 60% efficacy relative to pergolide which was estimated at 82% efficacy relative to ropinirole itself 87% efficacious relative to dopamine which highlights the serious need for some sort of useful standardization when measuring the intrinsic activity of metabotropic receptor ligands, because honestly, this is ridiculous. And we're not even accounting for subtypes! :/
 
Yeah that's bullshit. In reality it's a complicated MOA and involves several systems
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It might. Not much has proven or disproven many of the various mechanisms as plausible or implausible.

ebola
 
Wasn't there talk about it being a gap junction modulator at some point, or was that all just wild speculation?
 
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