Modafinil is a powerful nootropic, a wakefulness-promoting drug used to treat narcolepsy. It has been found to improve mental abilities by shifting your brain's levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and acetylcholine.

While basic tests show improvements on cognitive ability, it's been difficult to find evidence of these benefits in non-sleep-deprived people.

Enhances Cognitive Functions

Modafinil 200 Australia has been shown to enhance cognitive functions in sleep-deprived people. In non-sleep-deprived subjects, however, its cognitive enhancing effects have been much less consistent. This is in part due to the fact that a single dose of modafinil does not significantly improve fatigue on visual analogue scales or self-reported feelings of alertness, although it has been shown to improve working memory performance (34).

To investigate the possible underlying mechanism for these changes, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was conducted before and after a single dose of modafinil in participants with remitted depression. ROI-based eigenvector centrality analysis of the resting brain network showed that modafinil enhanced connectivity within BA17, which is connected to the cerebellar Crus I and II areas, the frontal lobe VIIIa lobule, and the right inferior frontal sulcus.

These findings suggest that the stimulant effect of modafinil may be related to its ability to increase norepinephrine and dopamine in these brain regions. Further studies should test whether these mechanisms are able to explain the improvements in episodic and working memory performance seen with modafinil in remitted depressed patients.

Boosts Alertness

Modafinil is a benzhydrylsulfinylacetamide that selectively targets neuronal pathways in the sleep/wake centers of the brain and acts as a wakefulness-promoting agent. It is well absorbed following oral administration, and the half-life of the R enantiomer (modafinil) is about 10 to 15 hours, while the S enantiomer is shorter (3 to 4 hours). Modafinil is metabolized by CYP1A2 oxidation, which yields a metabolite that exhibits less central stimulant activity.

In controlled clinical trials, Modvigil 200 mg has demonstrated significant waking effects in people with narcolepsy. The drug has also been shown to improve vigilance in patients with obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome and shift work sleep disorder.

Unlike the more robustly arousing traditional stimulants, modafinil does not appear to cause addiction or craving. However, the possibility of abuse is always present for any medication. There are reports of college students abusing modafinil to extend their wake periods for studying and other activities. Such behavior may be exacerbated in individuals who have a history of substance abuse or psychological problems.

Enhances Memory

In contrast to other cognitive enhancing substances (such as stimulants) that typically come with a range of negative side effects, Modafinil has not been associated with significant or serious mood changes or dependency. It has also been found to boost memory, learning and other cognitive abilities in healthy people.

In a series of studies with different testing paradigms, Modafinil was found to improve performance on the digit span and sustained attention tasks. It did not, however, significantly improve performance on the delayed extinction or ID tests. These tasks are more reliant on ascending DA systems than the digit span test and involve a more complex task of attentional set-shifting requiring lateral PFC.

Modafinil’s HA effect may be mediated by the catecholamines, 5HT and GABA (Passani et al, 2000) or by its effects on glutamate (Ferraro et al, 1999). Evidence supports that it enhances the release of glutamate onto medial PFC pyramidal cells, an effect inhibited by prazosin but not yohimbine, suggesting that it interacts with both DA and NE systems.

Increases Focus

Modafinil is effective in improving wakefulness in patients with excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy. However, prolonged or high dose use of this drug can result in psychological or physical dependence.

Modafinil has a low liability to abuse and does not produce the same physiological effects as traditional stimulants such as amphetamines. Postmarketing studies have identified idiosyncratic cases of individuals who developed addiction to the drug to prolong their wakefulness, but this phenomenon does not seem to be as common as with the misuse of more robustly arousing prescription stimulants.

Modafinil is primarily metabolized in the liver by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 and to a lesser extent CYP 2C19. Serum concentrations of modafinil are decreased by drugs that induce CYP3A4, such as rifampin, phenytoin, St John’s wort and efavirenz. Increased monitoring is required in patients taking these medications with modafinil.