Marks Psychiatry

There seems to be a lot of buzz about Provigil lately. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that Provigil is used to treat wakefulness disorders such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift-work disorder. Psychiatrists and others have used Provigil off label (non-FDA approved reasons) for other indications such as an adjunct to antidepressants, to counteract sedation from other medications and to help with cognitive slowness and other memory problems.

More recently researchers have found Provigil to be helpful in treating bipolar disorder patients who were depressed. Two studies in the August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry (164: 1242 – 1249 and 164: 1143 – 1145) show some benefit to bipolar depressed patients when they were treated with 100-200 mg of Provigil.

These are preliminary results, but this is very promising and could be huge for the treatment of bipolar disorder. It is not uncommon for patients with bipolar disorder to have their mania managed with mood stabilizers but still bottom out on the depressed end. What’s even more positive are the findings that Provigil did not significantly increase a person’s risk of developing mania.

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