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Armodafinil is a newer, more pure version of the drug Modafinil. The most common name brand version is called Nuvgil.
Nuvigil is produced by the same pharmaceutical company as the popular brand name version of Modafinil, Provigil, and is prescribed by doctors to treat the same medical problems for which Provigil is prescribed to treat.
Armodafinil is sold under the brand name Nuvigil in the United Kingdom. Armodafinil was developed to treat narcolepsy and other medical conditions which make it difficult to function during the day because of fatigue.
It works by promoting a state of wakefulness uniquely different than that of typical CNS stimulants.
There are no jitters or nervousness which are frequent side effects experienced with amphetamine use and even caffeine.
It is reportedly prescribed by some doctors for combating fatigue, jet lag, ADHD as a motivation booster and for cognitive enhancement.
What are the laws pertaining to buying Armodafinil in the UK?
Energy
Cognition
Motivation- Wakefulness-boosting stimulant
- Enhances motivation and focus
- Shown to boost mental performance
Armodafinil Drug Information
Related Topics
- What is Armodafinil?
- What is Nuvigil?
- Armodafinil vs. Modafinil
- User Review
- Typical Nuvigil Experiences
- How it Works
- Nuvigil for ADHD
- Effects on Depression & Anxiety
- Dosage Recommendations
- How to Take
- Reported Side Effects
- Withdrawal & Tolerance
- Prescription Information
- Buying Nuvigil
- Generic Nuvigil Brands
- Is Armodafinil Legal?
- Is Nuvigil Safe?
- Comparison to Adderall
In the late 1970s, the French company called Lafon Laboratories developed a compound which came to be known as Adrafinil.
Adrafinil is an inert substance until it is taken into the body where it is converted into Modafinil by the liver. Modafinil is the active substance thought to inhibit the reuptake of the dopamine transporter.
This leads to an increase in extracellular and synaptic concentrations of Dopamine. Research indicates Modafinil worked to increase effectiveness between certain neurons in the thalamocortical loop, which is critical in organizing our sensory input and modulating our global brain activity.
The lab eventually formulated Modafinil directly and ceased production of Adrafinil in order to focus solely on Modafinil.
Then, in 2007, Cephalon (who bought Lafon in 2001) introduced Armodafinil to the global market. Their patent on Modafinil was set to expire, necessitating an improved or significantly different variation of the drug.
Armodafinil is an altered form of Modafinil with some important differences. There are some who believe that even though it is structurally slightly different, Armodafinil’s effects are no different from Modafinil but was simply developed to prevent the market from being overrun by generic versions of Modafinil.
To this day, Provigil (the brand name for Modafinil) is still actively prescribed in the UK and it remains more popular than Armodafinil in the UK.
Armodafinil vs Modafinil
Armodafinil contains only one of the isomers of Modafinil, making it a more purified form of Modafinil. Modafinil is made up of two mirror image stereoisomers, known as enantiomers. These compounds are identically in molecular structure, but are mirrored on one axis (like a right and left hand).
Modafinil is comprised of R-Modafinil and S-Modafinil enantiomers. It is considered a racemic compound, because it contains both enantiomers in equal proportions.
In some drugs like Modafinil, only one of the compound’s isomers is responsible for the desired physiologic effects, while the other isomer is less active, inactive, or sometimes it is even responsible for adverse effects. Therefore if a drug’s inactive isomer is essentially unnecessary, or considered not to be beneficial, there isn’t any real reason for it to be included in the medication.
Armodafinil can be said to be an enantiopure version of Modafinil because it contains only the R-enantiomer which is responsible for producing the desired effects which Modafinil provides. The S-enantiomer was not contributing to the beneficial effects and therefore was not considered necessary.
This makes Armodafinil a purer form of the drug and therefore requires a smaller dosage and in some cases also seems to have a lower incidence of side effects. Armodafinil is sold in 150 mg pills while Modafinil 200 mg dosages were the norm previously.
- Increases energy, wakefulness and motivation
- Boosts mental performance and focus
- Supports memory and cognition
Armodafinil for Sleep Disorders
Like Modafinil before it, Armodafinil was first used and approved for treating sleep disorders that involve excessive sleepiness, especially narcolepsy, shift-work sleep disorder, and obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome.
In multiple double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials Armodafinil has been seen to significantly increase wakefulness and decrease excessive daytime sleepiness (and nighttime sleepiness in the case of shift-work sleep disorder patients) compared to placebo.
Narcolepsy is a neurological sleep disorder that causes people to have excessive daytime sleepiness and to randomly fall asleep during the day, multiple times per day, regardless of the quality and quantity of nighttime sleep.
In one study on narcolepsy, patients were given either a placebo or Armodafinil. It was seen that patients given Armodafinil had significantly increased mean sleep latency times as measured on the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test compared to a decrease in time seen in the placebo patients.
Shift-work sleep disorder is a condition that can develop when people must be awake at night and sleep during the day due to their work schedule. They can experience excessive sleepiness while awake and working at night, as well as insomnia when trying to sleep during the day.
In one study using Armodafinil for shift-work sleep disorder, it was seen that Armodafinil significantly increased mean sleep latency time on the Multiple Sleep Latency test compared to placebo. Diaries kept by patients showed that Armodafinil decreased sleepiness during nighttime work shifts and lab test shifts, as well as during commutes home.
Obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome is a medical condition that causes breathing to be labored or stop during sleep. The typical treatment for this condition is wearing a nCPAP (nasal continuous positive airway pressure) machine during sleep to keep the airway open. Some people still experience excessive daytime sleepiness with treatment, and Armodafinil has been used as an adjunct treatment in these cases to relieve this symptom.
Armodafinil has been seen to significantly improve mean sleep latency time on the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test from baseline levels, as compared to a decrease in latency with placebo. As well, sleepiness as measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale was decreased significantly in the Armodafinil group.
In the last few years, Armodafinil’s indicated uses have been restricted in the UK down to just use for narcolepsy. It is no longer an indicated drug for treating other sleep disorders. It is still used for these purposes in other countries though, like the United States and Canada.
Off-Label Armodafinil UK Uses
Armodafinil has only been approved for use for narcolepsy in the United Kingdom, and any other uses are considered off-label. While not officially approved for these uses, there are many different ways that people have used Armodafinil off-label, including for fatigue, for jet lag, to treat the symptoms of ADHD, and as a cognitive enhancer.
Similar to its intended use, some people use Armodafinil to help relieve fatigue associated with various conditions, such as depression, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease. Others have said that it is helpful when used short term for relieving the sleepiness experienced with jet lag.
Both Modafinil and Armodafinil have been used to treat the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The stimulating effects of the drug help to improve concentration users report, and effects are equivalent to traditional amphetamine based medications, often without the same incidence of serious side effects.
Research is lacking studying Armodafinil directly for treating ADHD, but there exists a large body of information using Modafinil. It is thought that results can reasonably be extrapolated to this stronger compound as well. Modafinil has been seen to improve symptoms of ADHD significantly compared to placebo, on many different tests, including the Conners Rating Scales, the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale, and the DSM-IV ADHD Behavior Checklist.
One of the most common off-label uses of Modafinil and Armodafinil are as smart drug cognitive enhancers. Users have said that these drugs increase their concentration and focus, improve their motivation to complete tasks, enhance their learning ability, and increase their memory formation, retention, and recall.
There has not been any real research done studying the cognitive effects of Armodafinil directly, but these effects have been studied in trials focused on sleep disorders. In one narcolepsy study, it was observed statistically significant improvements in attention and memory scores on tests from the Cognitive Drug Research battery of tests compared to placebo patient scores. Similar results were seen in a shift-work sleep disorder study with standardized tests of memory and attention.
Can I Buy Armodafinil in the United Kingdom?
Armodafinil is legal in the UK, but the government regulates access to it. A doctor’s prescription is required in order to legally purchase, possess and use this drug.
Prescription-only drugs can be ordered online from providers within the UK or those located in other countries. Residents of the United Kingdom are permitted to import “prescription-only” drugs in quantities which are considered to be for personal use—usually a 30-90 day supply.
We recommend providing your online pharmacy with a copy of your prescription to be included with your order in order to facilitate its passage through customs.
There are reports of UK residents importing small quantities of Armodafinil without a prescription but we do not recommend it.
Bear in mind that your order could be subject to seizure in customs and, though there aren’t any reports of it, you could be subjected to legal consequences.
Furthermore, ordering Armodafinil from online pharmacies carries the risk that you may receive a fake or inactive product. Most of these offshore pharmacies are based in countries where regulations of manufacturing processes are more lax.
Unless you have a way of testing your Armodafinil pills to determine they are authentic, you may end up buying an unsafe product.
Non-Prescription Alternative Options
Because of the prescription-only status of Armodafinil in the United Kingdom, and the dangers inherent if you buy Armodafinil online without a prescription, many users choose to purchase and use Adrafinil, the original substance found by researchers in the 1970s.
The French company stopped manufacturing Adrafinil shortly after patenting and marketing Modafinil, but other companies around the world have continued to produce it.
It is available in bulk powder form and importing it to the UK in small quantities is allowed.
One of the down-sides is that Adrafinil is associated with a greater risk of side effects than Armodafinil or Modafinil. It has to be processed in the liver in order for it to be converted into Modafinil which can cause an elevation in liver enzymes with continuous use.
For this reason, daily use of large dosages of Adrafinil is believed to exhibit hepatoxicity. It is still possible to use it safely (for example, Tylenol is another drug that features a similar degree of hepatoxicity), but it is advised that you only use it on an infrequent basis to avoid any possible risks.
We recommend talking with your doctor before taking Adrafinil, Modafinil or Armodafinil for any continuous period of time.
Another non-prescription Armodafinil alternative that people in the UK can try is one of the Racetam family of compounds. While the original parent compound Piracetam is considered a prescription-only medication, its more potent derivatives are not.
Piracetam was first developed in Belgium in the 1960s. This compound has been seen to have positive effects on the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine in the brain. This is thought to lead to improved overall cognition as well as increased learning ability and memory.
The most common derivatives of Piracetam – Aniracetam, Oxiracetam, Pramiracetam, and Phenylpiracetam – are all more potent than their predecessor, and normally have additional cognitive benefits.
These compounds are not controlled or regulated in the UK, and are legal to own and use. Due to strict penalties enforced on vendors within the UK for selling compounds like this, they are not found at any domestic sellers. However they are available from a large variety of online nootropic stores, and many people have reported success when importing small amounts deemed for personal use (typically between 1-3 months supply).
Armodafinil Legal Status
Armodafinil is the third generation drug from Cephalon Corporation in France. Using Armodafinil in the UK has become popular for a number of off-label uses because it is viewed as a powerful smart drug or cognitive enhancer.
It is available by prescription-only in the United Kingdom. Residents of the UK are allowed to import quantities of 30-90 day supplies for their own personal use, providing they have a prescription.
For those without a prescription, a non-prescription alternative is Adrafinil. When taking any of these drugs, it is important to work with a doctor who is familiar with the drug and to monitor your liver enzymes every one to three months.
Armodafinil is sold under the brand name Nuvigil in the United Kingdom.
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Article last updated on: April 12th, 2018 by Nootriment