I do want to give some very mild pushback on the Rolling Stone article's characterization of Provigil/Modafinil as "Speed". I study neuropharmacology and psychology full time and I can categorically state that there is a fairly vast gulf of difference between Modafinil and amphetamines. If the academic bona fides weren't enough - I also …
I do want to give some very mild pushback on the Rolling Stone article's characterization of Provigil/Modafinil as "Speed". I study neuropharmacology and psychology full time and I can categorically state that there is a fairly vast gulf of difference between Modafinil and amphetamines. If the academic bona fides weren't enough - I also have been prescribed both at different points in my own life as my doctors attempted to grapple with a circadian disorder and ADHD. The actual effect of both is very, very different, in my experience.
To the best of our knowledge, Modafinil is not physically addictive, amphetamines are. Provigil will keep someone awake but it will not get them high if taken in excess. Provigil does not promote direct dopamine release in the way that amphetamines do. Both have legitimate medical uses. Both are serious drugs that should not be prescribed lightly. I am not surprised that a presidential administration would rely on provigil to keep staff members going, it's very useful for that but really the fact that the White House at any point has had to rely on drugs to accomplish the people's work speaks to the ludicrous workload of any given White House staffer and the need for considerably more people to handle that workload, without pharmaceutical assistance being necessary.
To be clear, the article does elaborate on Provigil's method of action and makes clear some of these differences. The FAR more worrying thing is how cavalier the Trump White House was with prescribing benzodiazepine medications like Xanax. These are very powerful, very effective anti-anxiety sedatives that must never be used as long term solutions to anything because they are phenomenally addictive. What's more, not only are they addictive, their withdrawal syndrome is one of very few withdrawal syndromes that can actually be lethal in and of itself. That isn't even true of opioid withdrawal. Having gone through Benzo withdrawal myself after chemotherapy (it is also used as an anti-nausea/anti-emetic medication for people in chemo) I can say that I would not wish that ordeal on anyone. Tapering safely off those medications took longer than my fight against cancer did.
The human brain is a tremendously powerful and relatively poorly understood entity. We know a lot, but what we know is dwarfed by the scale of what we still do not know. These are some of the medications you want to be most judicious in prescribing - they are useful, they do work, but they have profound drawbacks that likely eclipse what we already know.
I do want to give some very mild pushback on the Rolling Stone article's characterization of Provigil/Modafinil as "Speed". I study neuropharmacology and psychology full time and I can categorically state that there is a fairly vast gulf of difference between Modafinil and amphetamines. If the academic bona fides weren't enough - I also have been prescribed both at different points in my own life as my doctors attempted to grapple with a circadian disorder and ADHD. The actual effect of both is very, very different, in my experience.
To the best of our knowledge, Modafinil is not physically addictive, amphetamines are. Provigil will keep someone awake but it will not get them high if taken in excess. Provigil does not promote direct dopamine release in the way that amphetamines do. Both have legitimate medical uses. Both are serious drugs that should not be prescribed lightly. I am not surprised that a presidential administration would rely on provigil to keep staff members going, it's very useful for that but really the fact that the White House at any point has had to rely on drugs to accomplish the people's work speaks to the ludicrous workload of any given White House staffer and the need for considerably more people to handle that workload, without pharmaceutical assistance being necessary.
To be clear, the article does elaborate on Provigil's method of action and makes clear some of these differences. The FAR more worrying thing is how cavalier the Trump White House was with prescribing benzodiazepine medications like Xanax. These are very powerful, very effective anti-anxiety sedatives that must never be used as long term solutions to anything because they are phenomenally addictive. What's more, not only are they addictive, their withdrawal syndrome is one of very few withdrawal syndromes that can actually be lethal in and of itself. That isn't even true of opioid withdrawal. Having gone through Benzo withdrawal myself after chemotherapy (it is also used as an anti-nausea/anti-emetic medication for people in chemo) I can say that I would not wish that ordeal on anyone. Tapering safely off those medications took longer than my fight against cancer did.
The human brain is a tremendously powerful and relatively poorly understood entity. We know a lot, but what we know is dwarfed by the scale of what we still do not know. These are some of the medications you want to be most judicious in prescribing - they are useful, they do work, but they have profound drawbacks that likely eclipse what we already know.
Holy Shit that was insightful
Very helpful; thanks for this.