Posted by zeugma on January 11, 2005, at 16:23:52
In reply to Provigil - glutamate - benzos, posted by emme on January 11, 2005, at 12:09:11
If I recall correctly (I've read tons of abstracts, and I don't have a printer so I just read them and move on) Provigil does increase glutamate to some degree, but its effect at normal doses (i.e. not the doses they perfuse into exposed rat brain for the purpose of seeing what a month's supply of modafinil would do to naked cytoplasm) is to reduce GABA in certain areas, particularly those connected with motor function. (This is why it's being researched in Parkinson's disease.) It is also a DA reuptake inhibitor, though a relatively weak one, and it exerts strong effects on the hypothalamus, which is one of the brain's key structures: sleep, feeding, coordination of responses necessary to survival are all dependent on a functioning hypothalamus. No one really knows what provigil does, but it does seem to reduce, directly or not, GABA, in certain regions, and thereby indirectly raise glutamergic levels, or at least the ratio between the two, in those regions, which are probably far removed from the amygdala (the benzos' therapeutic site of action.) And I distinctly recall reading an abstract in which provigil protected against glutamate-induced cytotoxicity, though again, one must interpret studies of this kind with caution.. And no, it does not interfere with benzos, at least clonazepam (speaking from my own experience). Its reputation is that of the least anxiogenic of the stimulants.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:440648
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050108/msgs/440732.html