Modalert 200 Tablet is used to improve wakefulness in patients with narcolepsy or other sleeping disorders. It is not used to hold off sleep in healthy individuals. Several studies have found that modafinil enhances cognitive function in subjects who are experimentally sleep-deprived. These include improvements on tasks such as digit span, spatial planning, and Stop Signal Reaction Time.
It Enhances Alertness
Modalert is an FDA-approved drug for narcolepsy and has been shown to improve subjective measures of alertness in two randomized double-blind placebo-controlled studies. It has also been shown to enhance wakefulness in sleep deprived individuals without narcolepsy and to improve performance on objective tests of alertness during a period of experimental sleep deprivation in shift workers (Wesensten 2006).
Many stimulants, including Modalert, have been found to improve cognitive function in individuals who are sleep deprived. They have enhancing effects on simple domains of cognition such as fatigue and vigilance, improve psychomotor skills, and attenuate the negative effect of sleep deprivation on higher cognitive functions. However, there is much less research and consensus about the ability of Modalert to enhance cognitive function in normal healthy people who are not sleep deprived.
It Enhances Memory
Stimulants, including modafinil, have long been used as a cognitive enhancer to counteract the adverse effects of sleep deprivation. Several studies have shown that this drug increases alertness, concentration and psychomotor skills in sleep deprived individuals. However, there has been less research and scientific consensus on the effect of modafinil on more complex cognitive functions such as working memory.
In one study, eight medication-free adults were administered a single 200-mg dose of modafinil and were then given a computerized version of the Wechsler Auditory Digit Span Test (WDST). Results indicated that modafinil significantly enhanced working memory performance at an intermediate level of task difficulty. This result was accompanied by increased cortical activation in response to the test.
Several other studies have found that modafinil can improve cognitive functioning in healthy people who are not sleep deprived. In particular, modafinil appears to improve performance on working memory tasks such as the digit span test and visual recognition memory. In addition, the drug can increase performance on delayed matching and maintenance and manipulation tasks without affecting speed-accuracy trade-offs or attention (Muller et al. 2004).
It Enhances Concentration
The use of stimulants and modafinil 200 australia to promote wakefulness and reduce the negative effects of sleep deprivation has been backed by several scientific studies. These studies have indicated that these drugs enhance vigilance, psychomotor skills and reaction time in sleep deprived individuals. Additionally, they also improve subjective feelings of energy and alertness in these same sleep deprived individuals.
A study published in the November 1 issue of SLEEP, the journal of the American Sleep Medicine Association found that modafinil mitigates against impaired working memory performance that results from overnight sleep loss. The study showed that a single 200 mg dose of modafinil improved the ability to perform a complex task with moderate difficulty. This effect was accompanied by an increase in cortical activation. Improvements were not seen with a lower-difficulty task, however, which indicates that the drug enhances cognitive function in a more targeted way.
It Enhances Attention
Although modalert is primarily used to treat narcolepsy, it is often prescribed off-label for a much wider range of indications. These include enhancing cognitive performance during shift work and sleep deprivation. Modalert is effective in this context because it enhances vigilance, alertness and psychomotor skills. It also improves the ability to concentrate and learn. It also reduces errors on cognitive tasks that require a trade-off between speed and accuracy.
For example, a study that simulated night shift work found that a 4-day regimen of 400 mg of modafinil reduced errors on the WCST and a Hayling sentence completion test that requires cognitive control. The improvement on these tasks was associated with activation of the dorsolateral PFC and anterior cingulate cortex, measured by fMRI.
A randomized placebo-controlled study of healthy adults who were not sleep-deprived, showed that modafinil increased performance on a visual discrimination learning task. This task involves attentional set-shifting and is mediated by fronto-cortical loops that are modulated by ascending DA systems. Modafinil enhanced performance on this task, but it did not improve the ability to perform delayed matching tasks or perceptual, arithmetic, or reasoning tests.
Similarly, in a study of eight medication-free volunteers who were subjected to overnight sleep deprivation, modafinil improved performance on a stop-signal reaction time task, which requires working memory and inhibition of prepotent responding. However, unlike the study of schizophrenic patients, this improvement was not associated with a decrease in omission errors.
