Modafinil and Schizophrenia

The most common use of modafinil is usually for sleep disorders of different types.  Those that the FDA recognizes are for narcolepsy, sleep apnea and sleep work shift disorder.  It basically is a wakefulness drug and stimulates alertness.

However modafinil is also being tested as a possible treatment for schizophrenia, because of its’ possible effects on the mind, and positive effects in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What is Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is considered to be the most vital cause of chronic psychiatric disability. In recent years the cognitive and motivational impairment seen in schizophrenia have been determined to be one of the main causes of the profound and persistent disability typically produced by the disorder. Although the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia may get better after treatment, an array of cognitive defects will often remain and the disability resulting from these defects have been thought to have an even greater effect on long term thought functions. 

Modafinil has been looked into as a possible treatment for schizophrenia as it may possibly lead to improved attention span for such patients.  Its’ effectiveness depends upon the cognitive functions and genetic make-up of a possible patient, and other drugs that they are taking that are supposed to work in unison with modafinil.

Modafinil a Cognitive Enhancer

Modafinil as a novel cognitive enhancer, selectively improves neuropsychological task performance in healthy volunteers and adult patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  The cognitive defects in patients with schizophrenia are considered to be the main cause as to why a vast number of patients fail to re-assimilate into society even if the psychotic episodes have already stopped.

Modafinil study on patients with schizophrenia.

A study using modafinil as a cognitive enhancer was used on 20 patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia using a 200 mg dose of modafinil.  The results showed that modafinil had some cognitive enhancing properties is schizophrenia similar to those observed in healthy adults and adult patients with ADHD.  There was marked improvement in short-term verbal memory span, and improved memory and spatial spanning.  Importantly there was significant improvement in attentional set shifting, despite no effect of modafinil on this task being seen in healthy volunteers or ADHD

patients. Modafinil may have potential as an important therapy for cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia, particularly because of its beneficial effects on attentional set shifting.

Modafinil’s Versatility

With all these positive results made on schizophrenia patients modafinil may in the future be finally prescribed for these patients.  At the moment modafinil’s FDA prescribed uses are very minimal as mentioned above.  However with further research the array of treatments wherein modafinil may be used is expanding rapidly.  For now modafinil is prescribed off label for other illnesses such as depression, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, parkinson’s disease, cocaine addiction and many other ailments.  This could only mean that modafinil is a versatile drug and thus more studies should be done in order to convince the FDA of other possible medical applications for modafinil.