Thomas Thorne
TO US Soldiers stay awake for days and nights in Iraq, and many are almost certainly benefiting from military research into pills that allow them to work for 40 hours straight, without feeling "depleted" and without crashing afterwards.
In past wars, soldiers have taken stimulants when they can't afford to sleep, but all of them have had side effects: poor judgment, nervousness, and the need to get more sleep as soon as the soldier stops taking them.
But the new pills to stay awake seem to have no effect side effects, at least in the short term.
American military studies found that soldiers can stay awake and function alert for 40 hours, sleep for eight hours, and then stay awake for 40 more, all without the judgment impairment of old-fashioned stimulants.
This is starting to scare some doctors, who say that modafinil, sold in Canada as Alertec and in the US as provigilia, could threaten the health of people who abuse it.
Modafinil is designed to help people with narcolepsy stay awake. These people, 150,000 of them in the United States, sometimes suddenly fall asleep in the middle of the day. Some doctors also prescribe modafinil to patients with multiple sclerosis to help them feel less tired.
Modafinil is not addictive. But what happens when a student or office worker starts taking modafinil to stay awake for the next 30 or 40 hours for a project that has a deadline? And what happens if the cycle continues?
Increasingly, Americans who feel the need to stay awake and who do not suffer from a serious sleep disorder are going unlabeled. modafinil recipes.
That's why there are 150,000 Americans with narcolepsy, but up to 250,000 use modafinil. The drug was first approved for use in Canada in 1999.
“I'm sure it's being used that way. "You can understand how difficult it would be to study a situation like that, especially when it's intermittent," says Dr. Tom Scammell, a sleep expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
"Most of the doctors I talk to are really discouraged."
Less than a year ago, the drug's U.S. supplier posted a summary of patients on its website, Dr. Scammell recalls, showing that a quarter had narcolepsy, while others had multiple sclerosis and some suffered from depression.
"And then there was a big 'Other' category."
These include people who take the medication only because they want to stay awake, not because they need it. And while the drug itself may not harm them directly, he believes the lack of sleep could be dangerous.
“Simply put, we don't know all the consequences of lack of sleep. However, there are some consequences that are very clear. When someone is sleep deprived, they become sluggish. Their reaction times are slower than usual. They become clumsy. Someone who has been sleep deprived for just one night drives just as badly as someone who is legally drunk.
"If you look at the number of car accidents (as a rate), it is highest between 2 and 5 in the morning because people are sleepy."
Tired people sometimes show blood sugar levels similar to those of people with diabetes.
TO Washington Post One journalist who was awake for 30 hours taking the drug happily wrote that he felt fine and added: “Modafinil may have the power to change Washington, D.C.” and other powerful cities.”
Doctors fear that modafinil, while not a "feel good" drug, is one that people can take if they are under a lot of pressure.
“In my opinion, it's just one of those abuses of a medical app. You could probably get the same from 20 cups of coffee, but you wouldn't want to,” says Dr. Judith Leech, a pirilogist who cares for patients with sleep disorders at the Ottawa Hospital. "Get some sleep! Don't use pills to stay awake! Does that make good medical sense?"
“I think sleep is a good thing. The healthy thing is to sleep more if you are tired, right?
"Compared to other stimulants that have been prescribed, such as dexedrine and ritalin, (modafinil) doesn't work the same way, so it doesn't have the same side effects," she adds. Not cause hypertension or feeling connected, all effects that are part of the nervous system's “fight or flight” reflex.
“On the other hand, we don't really know what brain chemical it acts on. Personally, I'm not a big fan of stimulating people's brains with things I'm not sure about, unless there's a medical indication.”
Dr. Leech points out that soldiers have been offered drugs before to keep them awake: if not adderall or modafinil, it can be something worse, like amphetamines.
"On the other hand, what I use on someone whose life is totally affected by a brain chemistry disorder is different from what I think should be used on a military person" or other healthy people.
“It is bad to use drugs for bad reasons. There’s a reason we get sleepy.” Sleep helps the brain store memories and recover from work, and it helps the body develop its immune system. “And you deprive yourself of those things if you use a stimulant to overcome them.”
Fountain: The Ottawa Citizen
Date: October 11, 2003