51 replies to this topic

[itmustbeclose]

Modafinil from drugs-one is manufactured by Sun Pharmaceuticals and marketed by Intas Pharmaceuticals. I visited the Sum Pharma website, but could not find Modafinil listed on their product list. Does anyone know why this is the case?

[nootropi]

Modafinil from drugs-one is manufactured by Sun Pharmaceuticals and marketed by Intas Pharmaceuticals.  I visited the Sum Pharma website, but could not find Modafinil listed on their product list.  Does anyone know why this is the case?

India does not recognize patents. It is that simple. Whether or not the officially recognize that they produce modafinil may be just to avoid getting pestered by the current patent holder. Does that make any sense to you?

[pinballwizard]

All I took was 80mgs (less than a half tab) of Modafanil today... None of the other regimen. Damn this stuff is strong. I thought I was having a reaction with the caffeine and the nictotine and other nootropics. I am going to titrate down. My head is throbbing from this stuff.

[nootropic]

For me:
- I experienced a dull headache for the first 3 days when taking Modafinil (200mg).
- My sleep was disrupted for the first 2 nights.
- I felt extremely nervous and paranoid. I had the overwhelming sense that something terrible was about to occur.
- I felt alert, but unmotivated. I also felt depressed.

I currently do not take Modafinil, since my reaction to this drug is remarkably similar to a moderate dose of d-amphetamine. I therefore wonder whether the generic modafinil which I ingested is indeed the genuine drug. I also gave this drug to two of my friends and both said they felt restless and shaky.

My advice to anyone considering the use of Modafinil. Do not buy the generic version!

[eternaltraveler]

there is also a big concern that modafinil and other drugs produced in india is fake, or dosed improperly. The technology to make the fancy blister packets and pills that look good inside is nothing compared to the technology to make the drug itself. I've seen the synthesis for modafinil and it isn't simple (it isn't the hardest either). \

It is much simpler to make adrafinil (the synthesis for modafinil actually starts with adrafinil). Even though it is apparently made by a major pharmicutical company that doesn't mean it is, and even if it is we would have no legal ground to stand on if their indian plant didn't work up to american standards.

Just food for thought. It might be wise to have this assayed. There seem to be at least 10 people here who take it on a regular basis. That's somewhere on the order of 10 dollars a person if we pool our resources (which would be more than reasonable considering the price of the substance). I would be willing to contribute to this effort as well. I haven't bought any yet, but if it pans out I will.

takers?

[nootropic]

If a large pharmaceutical company in a developed country like Australia can mess up, imagine what India is capable of.


ABC Online

PM - Pan Pharmaceuticals recall

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.a...003/s842036.htm]

PM - Monday, 28 April , 2003 18:10:00
Reporter: Nick Grimm
MARK COLVIN: But first tonight, don't take your vitamins, and check your other non-prescription drugs. Australia's medicine cabinets tonight need a severe cleanout, after what appears to be the biggest product recall in Australian medical history.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Federal Government's medicines watchdog, has ordered an urgent recall of 219 products made and supplied by Pan Pharmaceuticals. Pan on its website describes itself as the largest independent contract manufacturer of ethical drugs and health supplements in the world.

It also claims to comply fully with the Therapeutic Goods Administration Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for Therapeutic Products. But now the TGA says the company has been systematically and deliberately manipulating its quality control test data.

The company's products affected include herbal and complementary medicines, but Pan also makes painkillers like paracetamol, and cold and flu medicines, on licence to other companies.

Nick Grimm reports.

NICK GRIMM: Sydney-based drug manufacturer Pan Pharmaceuticals is the nation’s largest contract manufacturer of complementary medicines, such as vitamins, minerals and herbal and nutritional supplements.

The company also produces over-the-counter pain relievers like paracetamol and codeine, and cold and flu preparations such as antihistamines and pseudoephedrine. Now a there's a list of 219 products, many carrying the Pan product name, which must not be used.

Dr John McEwen is the principal medical adviser for the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

JOHN MCEWEN: It’s important that we stress that we’re not talking about prescription medicines. Up to this time no safety problems have been identified with the prescription medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

What we’re talking about are a range of over-the-counter and particularly complementary medicines, herbal and vitamin products, and similar products to that.

NICK GRIMM: The product recall is the result of an investigation which began in January, when an anti-travel sickness tablet, Travacalm, manufactured by Pan for another company, was itself recalled. Faulty batches of the product had caused the hospitalisation of 19 people, while 68 others suffered potentially life threatening adverse reactions.

JOHN MCEWEN: It came to light initially because of problems with a travel sickness remedy in January, and when we investigated that we found there were manufacturing problems. Within a pack, some tablets had no active ingredient, and within the same pack at least one tablet had up to seven times the amount.

And what initially misled us was that the company had manipulated some assay results. Since then we have had our auditors visit the plant on a couple of occasions, and most recently spent nearly a week there, and have come up with multiple quality control and production failures, and we’ve reached the point where – in the interest of public health – we must simply get their products out of the marketplace.

NICK GRIMM: Is it the case there was a deliberate attempt to mislead your investigators?

JOHN MCEWEN: I wouldn’t want to say that, because that conveys sort of active diversion of the investigators. But, certainly, we found a number of things which were quite worrying to us on this recent audit.

NICK GRIMM: What’s likely to cause further confusion for the public tonight is the further warning from the Therapeutic Goods Administration that other products might also be affected.

Pan Pharmaceuticals has also manufactured products under licence for other companies. But what those products and their brand names might be, the Therapeutic Goods Administration isn’t saying yet.

John McEwen again.

JOHN MCEWEN: The great challenge for us is that Pan also are the biggest contract manufacturer, and they occasionally, therefore, make batches for other people and they will not be branded as Pan product.

So we’re in touch with a wide array of other marketers of these products, asking them to identify for us all of the batches of their products which Pan has made in the last 12 months, and we have in plan to publish that on our website and then in a second newspaper advertisement late this week or early next week, to publish a much broader list of those other products.

NICK GRIMM: The Therapeutic Goods Administration didn’t consider pursuing that investigation first, before making this information public. I mean, a lot of people are going to be confused tonight about whether they can use the products that they will have at home, because they don’t know if it’s been…

JOHN MCEWEN: We quite take that point. The Administration looked very carefully at that. It’s simply because of the magnitude of the task, and to delay at all would just leave us exposed to accusations of doing nothing.

I think we can say that in the next little while, if people have got medicines that, like vitamin products, mineral products that they don’t need to take as an essential medicine, it would be sensible, prudent to delay taking them until they’ve checked the numbers on the label of them against the published lists in the newspapers.

NICK GRIMM: Now, the recall spells a major headache for pharmacists and other retailers.

John Bronger is the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

JOHN BRONGER: I’m a bit stunned actually. I haven’t seen a recall of this sort for, you know, for quite a number of years.

NICK GRIMM: How’s this going to impact on your members?

JOHN BRONGER: This will be quite a few products come back, and our members will be involved in making sure that the public haven’t been affected by it, and oh gee, it’s just a mess.

NICK GRIMM: This has got the potential for causing a lot of confusion, hasn’t it? What’s your advice to members of the public tonight?

JOHN BRONGER: Look, I would say that first of all to just read any of the other medicine and the vitamins and pain area, and see whether it’s been manufactured on the label by Pan Pharmaceuticals, and if it has, and it’s within the date period, to take it back to the pharmacist, and he’ll sort it out for them.

MARK COLVIN: John Bronger is the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. Nick Grimm with that report.


© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
Privacy information: http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm

[zg00]

Its a risk we take (but probably much lower then some others).

http://edition.cnn.c.../31/tryptophan/

"Report: Contamination found in L-tryptophan supplement
August 31, 1998
Web posted at: 9:55 p.m. EDT (0155 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the second time in a decade, researchers say they have found possibly harmful contamination in a popular supplement sold in health food stores to promote sleep, prevent headaches and aid in weight loss.

L-tryptophan was pulled from the market in 1990 after a contaminated form of the product, made in Japan, was associated with nearly 1,500 cases of eosinophilia myalgia (EMS), a rare and occasionally deadly blood disease. More than 30 deaths occurred.

L-tryptophan -- a version of a naturally occurring amino acid -- was reformulated, but Stephen Naylor and Dr. Gerald Gleich at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota said Monday that tests on six different over-the-counter brands of the supplement showed evidence of the same chemical contaminant, known as "peak-X." Their findings were published in the September 1 edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

Gleich told a briefing Monday that they are not aware of any current cases of illness associated with products currently on the market. But, he added: "We believe the potential is there."
L-tryptophan still in demand

L-tryptophan had been used by an estimated 15 million Americans as a remedy for depression, premenstrual syndrome and insomnia when it was pulled from the market in 1990.

At that time, researchers could not determine whether the EMS resulted from peak X, excess L-tryptophan itself or a combination of the two.

Since then, the supplement was replaced by a version called 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5-OH-Trp), which is sold over the counter.

Now, low levels of a similar contaminant have been found in both synthetic and natural versions of the new product, the research team says.

"This latter compound is freely available over the counter and is being recommended to overcome 'serotonin deficiency syndrome' as well as obesity, headaches and insomnia," they wrote in the findings. "Yet whether it works or even is safe has not been evaluated.

"Indeed, the onset of EMS-like symptoms has also been associated with the ingestion of 5-OH-trp as far back as 1980," they wrote.

They said no current cases of EMS have been traced to the new supplement, but said the Food and Drug Administration had been notified of their findings.

The FDA said is it trying to confirm the report.
Researchers concerned about dosage

Some health books recommend large doses of this supplement, Gleich noted, urging caution on anyone taking it. "We do not know what safe doses are," Naylor added.

"Many alternative medicine strategies seem to offer substantial promise to the consumer," they wrote in their findings. "However, this study emphasizes the need for tighter quality control for the production of both synthetic and 'naturally' produced nutritional supplements sold as medications."

In 1994, Congress passed a law prohibiting the FDA from regulating dietary supplements unless they are marketed as drugs -- by claiming to treat or prevent diseases -- or prove to be an unreasonable health risk.

Illnesses that the researchers called EMS-like were suffered by a family taking the newer version of the product in 1991, they said.

The Mayo researchers purchased six different samples of the new product in the Rochester, Minnesota, and New York City areas. They declined to name the manufacturers of the samples they tested.

"In all six commercial preparations of 5-OH-Trp analyzed, peak X was detected at levels between about 3 percent and 15 percent of that observed in" the product implicated in the 1991 case.

The lower levels of contaminant may be why no new cases of the illness have been reported, they suggested.

Many products being sold are capsules ranging from 25 milligrams to 100 milligrams.

In the 1991 case, a 28-year-old woman became ill after taking 50 milligrams to 70 milligrams daily, though that product had higher levels of the contaminant.

But the researchers said at least one book recommends taking 300 milligrams to 900 milligrams daily. That amount, they said, could raise intake to levels that might cause illness. "

This resulted in L-tryptophan being pulled from the market (although it seems to be slowing making a come back).

More info: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Tryptophan/

[pinballwizard]

Update: I have been trying 30 mgs in the morning...

To my surprise: It seems to work pretty well without much side-effects. Some of the same jitteryness at a lower level. No headache. So side-effects are lower than a medium half-caf mocha starbucks and the results are better.

But I am looking forward to trying adrafanil (which is similar in nature) and straterra (which allows more concentration).

[zg00]

Hasn't Strattera been associated with liver damage? Glad to hear about the good results with Modafinil.

Looks like its uncommon (to answer my own question):

"This week, Eli Lilly announced that it would be adding a warning label to Strattera. There have been two reported cases of liver injury associated with the use of Strattera. Both patients have fully recovered and have normal liver function now.

Liver damage associated with Strattera is still considered rare, over two million patients have or are taking the medication and two have experienced liver problems. However, Eli Lilly is still adding a label to let consumers and doctors know of the potential for liver damage with use of Strattera."

http://add.about.com...ratterawarn.htm
http://www.zimmreed.com/Strattera.html

[Bruce Klein]

pinballwizard, how do divide the tablets to get 30mg?

I have modafinil 200mg tablets manuf. Intas Pharm.

[magister]

I took 200mg (from drugs-one) in the morning, first few days I really felt it. now in the second week...didn't 'feel' it after 2 days off at the weekend....but it still is there working in the background...I am alert and awake, but no 'up' like the first couple of days....I have been using with cyprenyl....plus plus

[pinballwizard]

pinballwizard, how do divide the tablets to get 30mg?

I have modafinil 200mg tablets manuf. Intas Pharm.

If you read the above thread, you will see that I had problems with the dosage. What is interesting is that some people (nootropi) never had a problem with side effects.

SO I SPLIT THE TAB

But, actually, now that I think about it, I am taking more like 60mgs because I assumed the tablets were 100mgs total and as you pointed out they are 200 mgs.... Sorry about the dosage mistake. Stupid mistake.

I am taking 60mgs, not 30mgs.

Pinball

[pinballwizard]

Hasn't Strattera been associated with liver damage? Glad to hear about the good results with Modafinil.

Looks like its uncommon (to answer my own question):

"This week, Eli Lilly announced that it would be adding a warning label to Strattera. There have been two reported cases of liver injury associated with the use of Strattera. Both patients have fully recovered and have normal liver function now.

Liver damage associated with Strattera is still considered rare, over two million patients have or are taking the medication and two have experienced liver problems. However, Eli Lilly is still adding a label to let consumers and doctors know of the potential for liver damage with use of Strattera."

http://add.about.com...ratterawarn.htm
http://www.zimmreed.com/Strattera.html

That is a great post ZQ. Why? Because it illustrates a rush to judgement. Quite often when someone yells fire in the room people get trampled... we need to look at the facts more. Besides, as Nootropi pointed out in our in-depth supplement discussions, "this stuff is used for like... a ton of different people" (I think he said elderly in Europe, perhaps that was adrafinil...) Point being, as he further said, "you take the liver palate blood test once every 3 months for straterra and/or modafinil and you make a change as they are elevated. You get red flags to make changes. It is no way to live your life if you are looking at every little red flag and treating it like a huge crisis"

But, also, I don't want to downplay "the fire in the room and no one sees it" analogy. Quite often people just ignore the risks too, if everyone else is.

Lets look at the facts and take away the emotion guys...lets act like rational people.

[zg00]

I agree, facts can be somewhat under-rated (especially with the media overloading us with poorly researched consumer alerts and what-not).

Fortunately I'm a natural skeptic so I figuded I'd read the info myself *before* putting both feet in my mouth. =)

[rainbowmaker]

I have modafinil 200mg tablets manuf. Intas Pharm.

Throw it out!

The majority of drugs (e.g. Modafinil) are chemical compounds which are not found in nature and hence are required to be synthesized from other chemical compounds by a series of chemical reactions. These chemical reactions involve various chemicals (e.g. strong oxidizing agents, heavy metal ions) that are toxic to human health. Fortunately such toxic chemicals are not present in the final product, unless of course, the means of removal is inefficient or there is poor quality control in the reaction process. Furthermore, in the process of synthesizing the drug of interest, a number of side-reactions occur. The products of such side-reactions may be toxic and thus must also be removed before the final product is sold for human consumption. Large pharmaceutical companies, such as Roche and Novartis, possess sophisticated equipment to ensure all toxic chemicals and harmful by-products are removed before the final chemical compound is sold. Does the Indian pharmaceutical company Intas employ experienced and highly educated Ivy League chemistry graduates like Novartis? Does Intas pharmaceutical use expensive equipment to ensure that the drug you consume is free of toxic compounds? I doubt it. Consider your health before purchasing cheap drugs made in Indian.

India does not recognize patents. It is that simple.

True, India does not worry about patents and they probably do not worry about quality control, particularly since that would mean reduced profit.

Edited by rainbowmaker, 16 January 2005 - 10:42 PM.

[nootropi]

Rainbowmaker; sorry to be so harsh; but your reasoning is way off.

Synthesis of modafinil is not quite as contraversial as you are making it out to be. The individuals working at Sun pharmaceuticals are just as qualfied and use the same exact ingredients as any other manufacturer to produce their modafinil. Firstly, Intas DOES NOT manufacture that modafinil; it is produced by Sun. Sunpharma is a HUGE pharmaceutical corporation. Sun probably gets to actually make more profits per unit due to their almost non-existent advertising; and they sell the drug to Intas to market.

Where are you coming up with your data? I can assure you that there are NO, as you say, "highly educated Ivy League chemistry graduates" working at Novartis. That is ridiculous. No highly educated Ivy League chemistry graduates would work such menial duties.

[rainbowmaker]

You merely do not want to accept the truth because you personally take Intas Modafinil.

but your reasoning is way off

Reasoning? What reasoning? Are you not aware of how drugs are made? I stated nothing NEW in my post. I just reminded people that there is a potential risk involved when taking a drug and everyone should be aware of this possibility when purchasing drugs, particularly those made by pharmaceutical manufacturers in developing countries that do not necessarily comply with US quality standards.

No highly educated Ivy League chemistry graduates would work such menial duties.

The quality control team at Novartis all have several years of industrial experience and possess at least a PhD.

Edited by rainbowmaker, 17 January 2005 - 01:49 AM.

[nootropi]

rainbowmaker: I disagree with you and your reasoning.

[rainbowmaker]

nootropi: I disagree that the world is round. Does my opinion change the fact that the world is indeed round?

[pinballwizard]

Lets not get personal. Back up your arguments. How is oxidation and heavy metals involved?

[rainbowmaker]

Buy an organic chemistry text book and read about reduction/oxidation reactions, Grignard reagents, etc.

[nootropi]

Buy an organic chemistry text book and read about reduction/oxidation reactions, Grignard reagents, etc.

How about this? You go buy one, report back later after you finish your review. Thanks for sharing.

[brooklynjuice]

Does Sun give you your third party analysis your always talking about?

[lol]

[nootropi]

Does Sun give you your third party analysis your always talking about?

[lol]

I am just as worried about Sunpharma having contaminants as I am Eli Lilly and Co.

[scottl]

I've been away on vacation, but the show continues on....and on....

Rainbowmaker is correct and I'd want to check out the modafinil from india before I consumed any. Heavy metals are not the only issue.

Rainbowmaker: what kind of testing would one need to do? HPLC?

Pinball,

He did back up his arguments if you have been exposed to synthetic chemistry:

"The majority of drugs (e.g. Modafinil) are chemical compounds which are not found in nature and hence are required to be synthesized from other chemical compounds by a series of chemical reactions. These chemical reactions involve various chemicals (e.g. strong oxidizing agents, heavy metal ions) that are toxic to human health. Fortunately such toxic chemicals are not present in the final product, unless of course, the means of removal is inefficient or there is poor quality control in the reaction process. Furthermore, in the process of synthesizing the drug of interest, a number of side-reactions occur. The products of such side-reactions may be toxic and thus must also be removed before the final product is sold for human consumption."

And if you have not been exposed to synthetic chemistry, and do not understand what he is talking about...

[pinballwizard]

Yeah, rainbow has been PMing me...We both apologized. Yeah, we were not arguing. I was confused. I am just interested. He said simply take the name brand version if you want to ensure better standards and he is just concerned.

Welcome back Scottl.

[jolly]

A. Split the tab...
B. If you can get your doc. to prescribe it, do so.

Beyond that, its harder for me to tell the strength of it vs not being on it, since I do take it continously for my add...and not being on something for the ADD results in = nothing getting done.

[free]

New Drugs May Act as Brain's Fountain of Youth
By MELISSA HEALY
Los Angeles Times
Published Tuesday, January 18, 2005

It would be hard to imagine improving on the intelligence of computer engineer Bjoern Stenger, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University. Yet for several hours, a pill seemed to make him even brainier.

Participating in a research project, Stenger downed a green gelatin cap containing a drug called modafinil. Within an hour, his attention sharpened. So did his memory. He aced a series of mental-agility tests. If his brainpower would normally rate a 10, the drug raised it to 15, he said.

"I was quite focused," said Stenger. "It was also kind of fun."

The age of smart drugs is dawning. Modafinil is just one in an array of brain-boosting medications -- some already on pharmacy shelves and others in development -- that promise an era of sharper thinking through chemistry.

These drugs may change the way we think. And by doing so, they may change who we are.

Long-haul truckers and Air Force pilots have long popped amphetamines to ward off drowsiness. Generations of college students have swallowed overthe-counter caffeine tablets to get through all-nighters. But such stimulants provide only a temporary edge, and their effect is broad and blunt -they boost the brain by juicing the entire nervous system.

The new mind-enhancing drugs, in contrast, hold the potential for more powerful, more targeted and more lasting improvements in mental acuity. Some of the most promising have reached the stage of testing in human subjects and could become available in the next decade, brain scientists say.

"It's not a question of `if' anymore. It's just a matter of time," said geneticist Tim Tully, a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and developer of a compound called HT-0712, which has shown promise as a memory enhancer. The drug soon will be tested in human subjects.

The new brain boosters stem in part from research to develop treatments for Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, schizophrenia and other conditions. But they also reflect rapid advances in understanding the processes of learning and memory in healthy people.

In the last two decades, scientists have made important discoveries about which regions of the brain perform specific functions and how those regions work together to absorb, store and retrieve information. Researchers also have begun to grasp how and where neurotransmitters are manufactured and which ones help perform which mental tasks.

"There are things cooking here that couldn't have been done one to two decades ago," said James L. McGaugh, former director of the University of California, Irvine's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Research has received further stimulus from a deep-pocketed investor -the U.S. military, which is looking for ways to help pilots and soldiers stay sharp under the stress and exhaustion of combat.

The potential market for cognitive enhancers has never been bigger, or more receptive. An estimated 77 million members of the baby boom generation will turn 50 in the next 10 years, joining 11 million who have already passed the half-century mark -- a stage at which memory and speed of response show noticeable decline.

Modafinil, the drug that whetted Stenger's powers of concentration, is used to treat narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. It is one of three prescription medications on the market that have been shown to enhance certain mental powers.

The other two are methylphenidate, marketed under the name Ritalin as a remedy for attention deficit disorder, and donepezil, prescribed for patients with Alzheimer's.

Studies have shown that these drugs can produce significant mental gains in normal, healthy subjects. None of the three has been approved for that purpose. Nevertheless, a growing number of healthy Americans are taking them to get a mental edge.

Some obtain the medications from doctors who write prescriptions for "off-label" uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration -- a practice both legal and common. Others buy the drugs through unregulated Internet pharmacies.

Cambridge University psychologist Barbara Sahakian considers modafinil (marketed commercially under the name Provigil) especially intriguing. Its developers aren't sure exactly how it keeps drowsiness at bay. But even in healthy people, the medication appears to deliver measurable improvements with few side effects.

In a series of experiments in 2001, Sahakian and colleagues found that in games that test mental skill, subjects who took a 200-milligram dose of modafinil paid closer attention and used information more effectively than subjects given a sugar pill.

Confronted with conflicting demands, the people on modafinil moved more smoothly from one task to the next and adjusted their strategies of play with greater agility. In short, they worked smarter and were better at multi-tasking.

"In my mind, it may be the first real smart drug," Sahakian said. "A lot of people will probably take modafinil. I suspect they do already."

Donepezil, sold under the name Aricept, also has been found to boost the brain function of healthy people. The drug increases the concentration of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, boosting the power of certain electrical transmissions between brain cells.

Some scientists predict that the development of even more-effective brain-enhancing drugs will usher in an age of "cosmetic neurology."

"If people can gain a millimeter, they're going to want to take it," said Jerome Yesavage, director of Stanford University's Aging Clinical Research Center and an author of the donepezil study.

But it also raises questions: Will the rich get smarter while the poor fall further behind? (Drugs such as modafinil can cost as much as $6 per dose.)

Will people feel compelled to use the medications to keep up in school or in the workplace? In a world where mental function can be tweaked with a pill, will our notion of "normal intelligence" be changed forever?

Many college and graduate students want an edge bad enough to take Ritalin, even if they do not suffer from attention deficit disorder.

At campuses, test sites and, increasingly, workplaces across the country, people are popping "vitamin R." Some users persuade a doctor to prescribe it; others get it from friends who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

The growing demand for Ritalin, which can be addictive, has prompted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to classify it as a "drug of concern."

On the Internet chat board of the Student Doctor Network, college students preparing for medical school admission tests frequently discuss the benefits of taking Ritalin or similar drugs on exam day.

Eventually, ambitious parents will start giving mind-enhancing pills to their children, said McGaugh, the UC Irvine neurobiologist.

"If there is a drug which is safe and effective and not too expensive for enhancing memory in normal adults, why not normal children?" he said. "After all, they're going to school, and what's more important than education of the young? And what would be more important than giving them a little chemical edge?"

Neuroscientists say two factors could prevent Americans from succumbing completely to the seductions of smart pills. First, their performance may not live up to expectations. Second, they could have side effects, some of them difficult to predict.

"There's no free lunch," said Tully. Consumers will have to consider what level of discomfort or risk they're willing to accept in exchange for sharper recall or enhanced powers of concentration.

The side effect that most neuroscientists fear is not physical discomfort, but subtle mental change. Over time, a memory-enhancing drug might cause people to remember too much detail, cluttering the brain.

In short, someone who notices or remembers everything may end up understanding nothing.

"The brain was designed by evolution over the millennia to be well-adapted because of the lives we lead," said Martha Farah, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Our lives are better served by being able to focus on the essential information than being able to remember every little detail . . . We meddle with these designs at our peril."

[jolly]

Thanks, I actually already saw that article (I've been doing a ton of research on modaf lately, I'm doing a speech on it)

[pinballwizard]

Post the speech... FYI guys. I starting to like the Modaf. It is better than cafeine. I work longer. But, a good nights rest and modaf is prolly much better. I think it takes time for my body to get adjusted to it. I tried straterra. I think modaf is better (so far).