Posted by JohnL on April 14, 2000, at 17:46:10
In reply to Re: Info on my new wonderdrug....Adrafinil., posted by elise on April 14, 2000, at 15:17:45
> john, i started to take provigil yesterday. I am curious as to how it differs from adrafinil. Am I correct in assuming that adrafinil also has a n antidepressent component to it? How would you compare dosage to dosage with provigil? Did you get agitated at all at the beginning taking it, like I was somewhat today at 200 mg. provigil??? Do you know if provigil has a cumulative effect also? Have you taken prozac ---that is what i take also and am very anxious, so i also take neurontin with it. Sorry to ramble, i am not sure what to do!!!! thanks, eliseElise,
Other than the fact that Modafinil is a very close descendent of Adrafinil, I really don't know much about it. I suspect they have many similarities, though perhaps some subtle differences as well. According to the literature I dug up, the Europeans who use these as antidepressants prefer Adrafinil. But you know how that is...we all respond so differently. As an earlier post proves, Modafinil can cause euphoria. Sounds like pretty good antidepressant action to me!To answer your question, I did not experience any agitation when starting Adrafinil. I certainly expected to though, because every other norepinephrine drug I've tried has caused agitation and/or worsened depression. I definitely had low expectations for it when I started Adrafinil. Whether Modafinil is the same or not, I don't know. As far as I do know though, Modafinil does indeed have a cumulative effect. Though you may feel it doing something immediately, it really takes days to weeks for it to fully work. Similar to antidepressants.
Since it is nearly impossible to find anything in literature pertaining to either of these drugs being used in depression, I believe they are very overlooked. In Europe--as the literature I posted shows--Adrafinil is prescribed as an antidepressant (even though it's technically a psychostimulant). I would assume Modafinil is very similar. The biggest difference I think is the cost. Adrafinil is way cheaper.
Up until about a month ago, I had been on Prozac for over a year. It definitely saved me from the clutches of depression, but did nothing to cure my anhedonia. I was undepressed yet lifeless. It wasn't until I stopped taking Prozac that I realized how badly it had been affecting my sleep, how it caused anxiety that I wasn't quite aware of, and how it basically numbed me so that nothing could possibly have cured my anhedonia as long as Prozac was in the mix. Prozac definitely had some merits, but it created some handicaps as well. I still have a little in my system. I think I could keep using it, but only at about 5mg a day. Any more than that actually creates more problems than it fixes. For me anyway.
So, what to do? Good question. Been there too many times. Things get confusing when we are starting one drug and hoping to stop another. Keep in mind Prozac's very long halflife (about 9 days) allows you to stop taking it abruptly at any time smoothly. It will still linger for more than a week. So if you want to taper down or stop, to see how the Modafinil does on its own, that's no problem. Just keep in the back of your mind the possibility of starting up the Prozac again if you notice yourself deteriorating quickly. Best to get back to where you were before making any other adjustments in that case. And as my pdoc always tried to impress on me...one thing at a time. So you might want to just keep the Neurontin right where it is until you are more aware of what Modafinil is doing.
poster:JohnL
thread:29957
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30026.html