A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Investigation of the Efficacy of Modafinil for Maintaining Alertness and Performance in Sustained Military Ground Operations

Abstract

With the advent of the 24/7 warfighter, novel pharmaceutical agents have come to the forefront of interest for maintaining sustained operations. The eugregoric, modafinil, was administered during an 88-hr sleep loss study to evaluate its performance maintenance capability. A modafinil dosing schedule (100/100/200 mg), would maintain cognitive and psychomotor performance at or near baseline levels throughout the experimental period. A repeated measures, double blind design was used to examine 100 and 200 mg doses of modafinil administered every eight hours to twelve participants. Cognitive and physiological tests were presented iteratively throughout the experimental sessions. The results of this study provide some evidence that modafinil partially attenuates the performance decrement caused by sleep loss in field environments, thus increasing the likelihood of successful mission accomplishment. As anticipated, modafinil had very little impact upon physical performance, had no adverse physiologic effects, and produced few side effects. Modafinil may negatively impact sleep but the effect appears minimal and should be investigated in a controlled manner. The universal acceptance of modafinil by our participants, its observed mild performance advantages, and its low health risk, make it a candidate for field applications.