jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) (03/07/91)
From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
According to an article in the 9 February 1991 issue of the British
magazine "New Scientist," the French defense ministry has developed,
and tested on humans, a drug that lets you {disco, march, load trucks,
pull sentry duty...just name your pleasure} for up to 48 hours
without sleep.
The drug is called Modafinil. A quick search of a medical journal
database gives sparse hits: rat trials in 1987 and human in 1988 up.
Supposedly it is a sleep inhibitor ("cenral adenergic agonist") that
doesn't make you crazy or mess up your judgement, and lets you go
back to sleep after the need for alertness has passed. So they say.
They are being rather closed-mouthed about how far the program has gone
and what the plans might be, but there was unsubstantiated speculation
about a potential field trial in the Persian Gulf.
For historical perspective, they lso said that German paratroopers
cranked up before the invasion of Crete -- a few of them even jumping
without chutes (?!), which I guess is the reason you don't get crystal
meth with your MREs -- and that amphetamines were also used by British
fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain.
I refer the reader to Julien, "A Primer of Drug Action," 3rd ed., San
Francisco: W.H. Freeman (1981) for more info on what amphetamines and
other stimulants do. The most seemingly relevant article title on
Modafinil seems to be B. Saletu et al., "Differential effects of a new
central adrenergic agonist--modafinil--and D-amphetamine on sleep and
early morning behavious in young healthy volunteers," Int. J. Clinical
Pharmacology Res., 1989, 9(3) pp. 695-700.
--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"