-
Prescrire international · Feb 1999
Comparative StudyModafinil: a second look. Confirmed efficacy in narcolepsy.
- Prescrire Int. 1999 Feb 1;8(39):5-7.
Abstract(1) Modafinil, a psychostimulant, has been available in France for the treatment of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia since 1994. (2) The initial clinical file was inadequate to judge its possible clinical value. (3) In narcolepsy three new short-term clinical trials have compared modafinil with a placebo (nearly 500 patients treated with modafinil). (4) These trials show that the effects of modafinil on daytime drowsiness are only moderate (average reduction of one unwanted sleep episode a day) but are subjectively better than those of a placebo. In all, 84% of patients preferred the modafinil period to the placebo period during a cross-over trial. In contrast, modafinil does not improve cataplexy. (5) No new trials have been done in idiopathic hypersomnia. (6) The effects of modafinil persist for at least four months according to a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. (7) The safety profile of modafinil appears to be similar to that of non amphetamine psychostimulants. (8) There is currently no evidence of dependence leading to withdrawal symptoms after abrupt treatment cessation, or of a risk of abuse.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..