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#148325 - 04/07/05 08:11 AM
Re: Provigil
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bbinsq
Journeyman
Registered: 12/06/04
Posts: 50
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I have been using Adrafinil which is quite similar (and much less expensive!) than provogil. It is marketed under the brand name olmifon and it is made in France. I think it is OTC in europe. I think it costs about six euro's for a box of 40 in europe. You can order it for about US$40.00 on the internet. It is a non-scheduled drug in the US.
I do not have narcolepsy and I got interested in the stuff after reading about "smart drugs" on the internet. I take prosac however and it makes me a little lethargic.
I take 600 mg a day of this stuff. Once in the morning and once at lunch.
There is not really any effect or stimulant feeling from the drug, you just dont get sleepy. Paradoxically, if you really want to sleep and you lay down in a dark quiet area, you can actually sleep.
(Note: Everything I post below this point can be found on the internet if you google Adrafinil, modafinil, provigil, and look around a bit)
I have done some reading on this on the internet and basically drugs like provigil (ie. modafanil, adrafinil) increase your "Sleep latency" ie. how fast a person goes to sleep when they lay down to sleep. If you been up for 24 hours you might have a sleep latency of one minute. YOu lay down and your out! If you are well rested you might have a sleep latency of 25 minutes.
Most people accumulate a little sleep deficit as they go through the work week. Most of us dont get quite enough sleep. I think most working people would fall asleep at work (especially after lunch!) if they were in a quiet safe place where people wouldn't catch them. I read once that in pre-industrial times people would sleep a few hours in the afternoon, go to sleep at dark, and wake up early in the morning. Basically 8 to 10 hours a day of sleep spread between two main sleep sessions. People in different latitudes of course had different schedules due to the available light, sleep habits for people in northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere would change throughout the year. But basically our bodies naturally require 6 to 12 hours of sleep a day and in the absence of the requirements of modern life, we would naturally spread this sleep requirement over two sessions.
In latin america you have siestas, people in africa sleep through the hot afternoons, in Asia (where I am based) countries like Taiwan and China have an official "nap" everyday after lunch.
You can go into any factory building in Taiwan. Walk into the employee caferia at 1:00pm and see literally hundreds or thousands of people with their heads on the lunch tables taking a nap... It is normal in Taiwan. All companies, big and small do this! It is only for 30 to 40 minutes but everyone does it. When I am in Taiwan I do the same thing and it makes you alot more effective in the afternoon. IN north america, we fight the natural tendency to spread our sleep between two sessions. I suspect 50 years from now everybody will be taking afternoon naps because there really is alot of evidence that suggests this is good for us.
Anyway..back to provogil. If you live in North America or in Europe and your country's culture frowns on you taking a nap after lunch you should check this stuff out...I have found that adrafinil helps me stay alert during the sleepy times of the day during the work week without affecting my ability to sleep at night. It isnt fun to take, doesn't make you feel like superman, you just dont get sleepy. Very useful to me and probably to alot of other people. If I stay up too late during the week I might pop two of these things in the morning and it keeps me from nodding off at work. Again, not fun to take but definitely useful. We live in a competitive world and even a little bit of an edge can make a difference.
Words of Caution:
Modafinil is FDA approved. However..Little or no long term research has been done on Adrafinil's long term effect on your brain and your body. THere is evidence that suggests Adrafinil might damage or be tough on your liver. I am finishing my second month on the stuff and am planning to go see my doctor about this. It is recommended that you get some baseline tests done if you are going to be using it for an extended period. I am a fan of the stuff so I am going to investing in some expensive liver enzyme tests just so I can continue to use the stuff.
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#148328 - 06/20/05 03:34 PM
Re: Provigil
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fratstav
Stranger
Registered: 05/10/05
Posts: 5
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I'll throw my own two cents in here so others might benefit from it. I've been prescribed provigil for almost 4 years at a low dose (100mg/day, usually it's twice that or even 400/day, taken twice), and have also gone through phases where I've taken more than that. General comments:
Physical things:
It seems to get along well with just about anything, without any cross interactions that I've noticed; there are a few out there (mainly because it's a bit of a bear to break down in the liver, apparently, so other difficult-to-break-down drugs in your system might cause a conflict and have one build up too much).
It tastes terrible after you digest it, especially a large dose or on an empty stomach; basically you get sorta sulfurous bubbles and you feel like you swallowed some very dilute sulfur. If there's a better way to put it I'd use it, but it's best taken with a glass of milk or with some food already in you. Especially be careful not to let it digest in your mouth; swallow it before you taste it.
Regardless of what the literature says, if you take more than about 100/day you will notice that it builds up in your system a bit after a few days, and even at 100/day you will notice after maybe a week or so; I found it helpful to take a day off every so often. Likewise, if you stop taking it cold turkey it'll eventually hit you at about the time you used to take it; because the drug seems to be directly turning on the 'I'm awake" switch, the rest of your body has gotten used to "we're waking up now" at whatever time, and now that's not the case.
Physically it won't make you feel speedy more than maybe the first day; I've never even noticed elevated heartrate at any dose. Some neck and jaw tension, though, that eventually faded after maybe two weeks.
Financial things:
Even with a copay it's still super expensive and now that I don't need it it was too exensive to keep around for rought times, so to speak; if you shop online with the international pharmacies you'll probably be able to do better by just importing than by getting a legitimate prescription and using your health plan (unless your health plan is fantastic), but paying full price at domestic pharmacies is a good way to go bankrupt for something not worth the price.
In a few more years provigil will wind up being legally manufacturable as a generic, at which point using it as a 'smart drug' or for fun will be much more affordable: it's not super-expensive to make and there's plenty of demand for it. It's high cost in the states has been because the uses for which health plans will cover it are few and far between, so Cephalon has to make up their research money by gouging the few customers it can get; once the drug goes generic it'll probably be both easier to get a prescription and easier to import.
Effects:
Alertness: Definitely improved. I can see athletes trying to get their hands on this drug for this reason; the use of amphetamines in college and pro sports used to be pretty widespread for the same reason, but this works in a slightly different way and is complementary to--not the same as--the way those work. For more general use the extra alertness is a mixed bag: it doesn't make you paranoid and you'll notice more of what's around you, but you'll be more distractable.
Wakefulness: Mostly improved. After taking it your mental 'awake' center is turned on, but it can take awhile for the rest of your brain and body to wake up also; it helps if the time you take it is the same each day, but if you're trying to take this to stay up late on a spur-of-the-moment thing it's a mixed bag: it might not work at all, and even if it does work it only makes things easier, not finishes the deal. Let me try to explain that better...taking this on a one-time basis for wakefulness doesn't do very much right away, and is more like coming home to a house and turning the heater on; eventually things will warm up--and certainly faster than if you waited for winter to end--but it's going to take awhile. If you're about to fall asleep, it's like turning on a furnace in an abandoned cabin with no windows during a snow storm--it'll help out more than not turning that furnace on will, but don't expect a miracle either.
Self-Awareness: I've found that to a very small extent it boosts self-awareness. I used to be a student in the sciences and this was pretty helpful, because I could be reading a formula or whatnot and have the self-awareness to remember to step back and focus on why this formula was the way it was. Something speedier might have me study faster, but in a less 'conscious' way. This effect is pretty mild, though, and can easily be overpowered.
Curiosity: I think this gets boosted a lot while on modafinil; makes sense if one assumes that wakefulness and curiosity are closely correlated or one is a major component of the other. This can be problematic, though: in my student days I'd lose track of the time reading stuff instead of sticking to schedules, which wasn't a problem prior to starting the provigil and was worse when I tried taking larger doses to study.
Drive: This medication basically does nothing for drive. If you're ADD/ADHD I can't recommend this drug for precisely this reason: you wind up more awake than before but overly curious and alert, so you notice more distractions; with the traditional stimulants you at least get some extra drive and motivation to help you control the effects. In my experience modafinil doesn't address the core symptoms of ADD/ADHD and if anything aggravates them by making you more distractable.
Irritability: I've heard it makes people irritable; for four years at a low dose I've not experienced that, but at higher doses sometimes I did.
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My use: I was given it for excessive sleepiness caused by an antidepressant, but stopped using it when I was finally diagnosed with some kind of mild temporal lobe epilepsy (fascinating stuff, look it up), and once I was treated for that I stopped being excessive tired. As I don't need it to function and find it overly pricey for its side benefits, I'm not really interested in it anymore, but figured I'd share; once it goes generic I might take a second look, but I suspect a lot of the hype around it came from Cephalon's PR budget getting articles placed and not from the actual substance.
Don't get me wrong: if you're legitimately in need of this (either excessively tired or narcoleptic), by all indications it's a life-changing miracle drug, but even as a 'smart drug' I think its bark is bigger than its bite.
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#148334 - 01/28/06 10:34 PM
Re: Provigil
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PsykoSmiley
Enthusiast
Registered: 12/06/05
Posts: 239
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yeah, keep us posted. blurry vision is not a good side effect for me. i have 20/50 and thats corrected! Can't afford to be blurry too 
I am curious, you said you cleaned your computer out and a bunch of other stuff, was this due to the drug giving you energy? And the other thing I'm wondering about is I've heard you don't get jitters like some other stimulants can give you, true? I hate that "speedy" feeling but would love to have more energy.
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#148336 - 01/29/06 04:43 PM
Re: Provigil
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MrCharlie
Banned: multiple account to create trouble and shill.Same as CosmiCharlie and others
Registered: 01/22/06
Posts: 320
Loc: Joliet
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Quote:
This forum is not to discuss suppliers. This thread is to discuss Provigil and not the companies offering it.
Thank you for your support.
Attachments
Description:
Edited by Melody (02/27/06 07:05 AM)
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#148343 - 02/14/06 07:41 AM
Re: Provigil
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PsykoSmiley
Enthusiast
Registered: 12/06/05
Posts: 239
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Got my provigil yesterday but it was too late to start it so I started with 50 this morning. I'm feeling energetic, I'm off to work in a bit so we shall see. I may go to 100 in a few days if 50's not doing it.
I'll give an end of day report too
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#148346 - 02/15/06 06:44 AM
Re: Provigil
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PsykoSmiley
Enthusiast
Registered: 12/06/05
Posts: 239
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I actually didn't take anything to make it go away, it wasn't excruciating or anything, just bothersome. I woke up today without it though and I drank a mountain dew. Maybe cutting the caffine at the same time isn't a good idea. This way I'll no if it was lack of caffine or the meds.
If it really works for me I wll take it everyday, it's so nice to feel normal again, I want to stay that way
I did have trouble sleeping last night, hard to go to sleep and tossed and turned. I figured maybe it was because I took the 2nd half so late. Today I am starting the day with 100mg and see how it does.
From what I've read, when it's prescribed it is usually in 200mg but if I were you I'd start with 50 or 100 and see if it helps, no need to take more then you need, just costs more money Good luck with it!
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