Use Of Modafinil And Armodafinil On Schizophrenia - 999 Words

2.11.1 Uses of Modafinil Armodafinil in Schizophrenia: Modafinil was shown to reverse phencyclidine (PCP)-induced impairment in attentional set shifting in a rat model of schizophrenia (Pedersen et al. 2009). Modafinil has also been shown to improve mood, depressive symptoms, and sense of humor, confidence, fatigue, vitality, social functioning and quality of life in healthy and bipolar depressive patients. However, some studies report anxiogenic properties of modafinil at 200 and 400 mg while others report anxiolytic properties. Both psychostimulants modafinil and armodafinil have a low potential to abuse and induce psychosis (Ferraro et al. 1997; Connell 1958; Pawluk et al. 1995) possibly because of its selective activation of hypothalamic regions such as the tuberomammillary nucleus and hypocretin (orexinergic) neurons. In a study by Morein-Zamir et al. in 2007, modafinil was discovered to improve short and long-term memory and cognitive flexibility in patients with schizophrenia. In 2011, the same research group reported an improvement in recognition of facial expression for all categories of emotion, particularly for sadness. In addition, in 2012 this research group conducted a systematic review of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on the use of modafinil (but not armodafinil) for the treatment of schizophrenia and observed that modafinil demonstrated beneficial effects in improving cognition, including spatial