People with schizophrenia frequently complain of fatigue and excess sleep, especially when on medications.
One medication that might help is Modafinil the drug that helps you stay awake - especially in the mornings.
Here is a study that looked at this:
“We conclude that ar/mod (200 mg/day) is safe and well tolerated in the short-term treatment of schizophrenia. Ar/mod reduces negative symptoms with a small effect size; the absolute advantage is also small, and the advantage disappears when chronically ill patients or those with high negative symptom burden are treated. Ar/mod does not benefit or worsen other symptom dimensions in schizophrenia.”
It would be interesting to see if anyone here had seen improvements in their negative symptoms(drive/motivation/goal directed behaviour etc) on modafanil etc.
Unfortunately it would not be an option for me as I have a variant of an allele/ SNP that indicates little or no response to modafinil.
RESULTS
Effects of Sleep Deprivation and Modafinil on Vigilant Attention and Subjective Sleepiness
The time courses of sustained vigilant attention quantified as median reaction time on the PVT, subjective sleepiness, and EEG theta activity during prolonged wakefulness in placebo and modafinil conditions are illustrated in Figure 1. When receiving placebo, these variables evolved similarly in homozygous Val/Val and Met/Met allele carriers. Figure 1A recapitulates the striking genotype-dependent efficacy of modafinil to improve reduced vigilant attention following sleep deprivation.14 While the stimulant maintained baseline performance on the PVT throughout prolonged wakefulness in Val/Val genotype, the drug was hardly effective in Met/Met allele carriers (genotype × treatment × session: F26,203 = 1.71, P < 0.03). Effects of Modafinil on the Sleep EEG Depend on Val158Met Genotype of COMT - PMC
If it can help someone here even slightly, that is good.
Most studies are only short term in nature because of the cost of doing these studies. Usually they start with the shorter term tests - and then if results are positive they might get funding for longer term studies.
I hope that it is effective long term because my son seems to have been affected more by the negative than the positive symptoms, though avolition has been the worst, and it doesn’t mention that.
find these answers ;
1-What is the chemistry of the attention case ?
{ what is the chemical processes that occur in the brain
and cause the emission of attention case that we feel it ? }
2-what is MECHANISM OF AUTOMATIC CONTROL FOR
the attention degree ?
3-How can psychological volition orientation and focus the
attention towards a subject,without the rest of other topics ?
4-How does it happen the bilateral interference between
one’s desires and the attention case ?
5-What is the thing (process} that converts /translates
one’s desire into operating orders,cause a change in
the attention directions according to concept of desire ?
6- If there is a specific standard to measure the level of attention ?
a-Cause of sz seeks to increase the level of attention
b- direction and focus attention towards unwanted subjects
agnaist one’s desire
c-sz cause acts like one’s desire in reverse direction
I started taking Nuvigil (the brand name) about 2 months ago. It took a couple of days for it to build up in my system before I saw results. The only drawback is actually waking up to take the pill in the morning. My anti-psychotic knocks me out and its hard to wake up, I sleep through the alarm usually. When I do take it I’m ready to go for the day in 15-30 minutes, wide awake, alert. I feel like I have so much more energy, not being sleepy all day. It hasn’t really helped with motivation but then I’ve been going through a stressful period at school and with my mom’s health. I don’t think I’ve experienced any side effects from it yet.
Adrafinil is a precursor to Modafinil and is available legally online in the US. I would be cautious as it can worsen psychosis so talk to your doctor.
I asked my pdoc about modafinal years ago when limitless came out and he said it might be good for me…he called me astute for suggesting it. It gave him the revelation modafinal could be good for people like me. He never prescribed it but maybe I gave him ideas…now this study comes out
THought I’d update again. I had stopped taking the Nuvigil because I could never remember to take it or couldn’t wake up TO take it. So I had been off it for several months. Now that I’m back in school things have been stressful and I’ve been symptomatic again. I talked with the pdoc and we decided to try Nuvigil again. I’ve been taking it for about 2 weeks now. I have an alarm on my new smartphone to wake me up to take it and its right by my bedside with a bottle of water. Within about 15-30 minutes I’m wide awake with a ton of energy. By ton, I’m comparing it to the slump I’ve been in where I had zero energy and haven’t gotten off the couch and was barely studying and couldn’t concentrate to do anything. I think it gives me the focus to study and read textbooks for long periods of time, i’ve been able to clean the house a little. My pdoc said it had some anti-depressant qualities to it (I can use any help I can get in that area) . I feel like I’m making more use out of my day instead of just sitting staring at the TV blankly. The only issue I’m experiencing is extreme fatigue at around 6-7pm. It may be from the med, the activity, or maybe its just the depression sinking in. Oh, I’m also not eating very much cause of the depression too so I guess I could be tanking too. Who knows? Anyway thats my experience thus far. When I think about it the flurry of activity it kind of reminds me of bouts of mania I’ve had in the distant past, the rush of energy, being wide awake and alive, brain zapped kind of.
Great news. Please let us know how things go over the next few months on this - just post a message on how its going every few weeks so we know if you’re still finding it helpful.