Modafinil, and other drugs in its class, aren’t “dementia treatment drugs.” That’s what the study was attempting to establish, and there seem to be promising results. But for now they’re still just “wakefulness promoting agents” (or according to wiki, the class is now called: “eugeroic”) that are used for narcolepsy and shift sleep disorder. Also maybe off-label for “excessive daytime sleepiness” due to… Whatever can make people excessively sleepy I guess.
I won’t speculate too much on Trump’s mental health situation, dude probably has tertiary syphilis at this point. He is clearly sundowning and showing the hallmarks of actual dementia (e.g. the stench, etc.). Huh, guess I speculated a bit after all.
Biden, on the other hand, is just old and facing the normal level of cognitive decline that anyone at his age with such a stressful job would face. Not to mention that he’s openly struggled with a speech impairment all his life, which can certainly make him appear more deficient than he actually is. I think his decline has been greatly exaggerated and meme-ified by the left and the right, and is really no comparison to the actual legitimate mental health clusterfuck that is Donald Trump’s brain.
In Biden’s case, modafinil (or probably armodafinil or some new shit that’s better) could for sure appear to do exactly as you say. That is, make him more coherent, alert, with increased memory and general cognitive abilities. In about 30 minutes. And it would last prob 8-10 hours or so.
These drugs really are fascinating, you should do some more research before assuming they’re like any amphetamine, coming with all of that baggage. But there is a reason they are specifically not called “stimulants.”
I understand the urge to make comparisons to what you already know, but this class of drugs really is very uniquely different and have nearly zero recreational value.
There is a HUGE difference in my mind on what is being debated here, and what the Far Right are alleging. The Far Right is saying that Biden has dementia like symptoms 90% of the time, and then for big things like the State of the Union and now this debate, someone gives him a bunch of drugs and all of a sudden his dementia is 100% gone and he is sharp and full of energy. All the stimulants in the world aren’t going to reverse the stage of dementia they allege that Biden has (or that Trump has - and may well be self treating that way).
I did a little research of my own to see if any actual studies existed about the effect of stimulants on people with dementia and found, this one and this one.
The first had the following quote:
Although patients showed improvements in apathy scores, the authors cautioned that benefits were modest (that could be due to the modest study size). In addition, patients did not show improvements in tests that measure how successfully they complete activities of daily living, like getting dressed and preparing meals. Nor did the drug lead to improvements in tests of memory and thinking skills. It might take longer than six months to observe significant differences on those parameters, or it might also be function of the age of the patients.
This was also after 6 months, not a pill before “show time”. Also remember that Biden is 81, to much up could turn his lights off.
The second study found this:
There were no significant treatment effects on cognition and clinical outcomes, as expected given the short trial duration.
This study was over 12 months, so double the other and nothing.
Modafinil, and other drugs in its class, aren’t “dementia treatment drugs.” That’s what the study was attempting to establish, and there seem to be promising results. But for now they’re still just “wakefulness promoting agents” (or according to wiki, the class is now called: “eugeroic”) that are used for narcolepsy and shift sleep disorder. Also maybe off-label for “excessive daytime sleepiness” due to… Whatever can make people excessively sleepy I guess.
They are given to fighter jet pilots who need to stay awake for very long missions (source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240314-the-drug-pilots-take-to-stay-awake)
I won’t speculate too much on Trump’s mental health situation, dude probably has tertiary syphilis at this point. He is clearly sundowning and showing the hallmarks of actual dementia (e.g. the stench, etc.). Huh, guess I speculated a bit after all.
Biden, on the other hand, is just old and facing the normal level of cognitive decline that anyone at his age with such a stressful job would face. Not to mention that he’s openly struggled with a speech impairment all his life, which can certainly make him appear more deficient than he actually is. I think his decline has been greatly exaggerated and meme-ified by the left and the right, and is really no comparison to the actual legitimate mental health clusterfuck that is Donald Trump’s brain.
In Biden’s case, modafinil (or probably armodafinil or some new shit that’s better) could for sure appear to do exactly as you say. That is, make him more coherent, alert, with increased memory and general cognitive abilities. In about 30 minutes. And it would last prob 8-10 hours or so.
These drugs really are fascinating, you should do some more research before assuming they’re like any amphetamine, coming with all of that baggage. But there is a reason they are specifically not called “stimulants.”
I understand the urge to make comparisons to what you already know, but this class of drugs really is very uniquely different and have nearly zero recreational value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugeroic
There is a HUGE difference in my mind on what is being debated here, and what the Far Right are alleging. The Far Right is saying that Biden has dementia like symptoms 90% of the time, and then for big things like the State of the Union and now this debate, someone gives him a bunch of drugs and all of a sudden his dementia is 100% gone and he is sharp and full of energy. All the stimulants in the world aren’t going to reverse the stage of dementia they allege that Biden has (or that Trump has - and may well be self treating that way).
I did a little research of my own to see if any actual studies existed about the effect of stimulants on people with dementia and found, this one and this one.
The first had the following quote:
This was also after 6 months, not a pill before “show time”. Also remember that Biden is 81, to much up could turn his lights off.
The second study found this:
This study was over 12 months, so double the other and nothing.
Edit - ugh … spelling.