Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I also have A,A (Met) at rs4680. I wouldn't necessarily conclude that modafinil would have negligible effect on us based on that study. The study was narrow, it looked at recovery from sleep loss and looking more if dopamine signalling affected sleep recovery.

There's tons of interesting studies about rs4680 (http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Rs4680). Although I think all the data is still to broad to make any conclusions.

I think I might give modafinil a go just to see what happens.




Hey, you prompted me to look at the paper :). My understanding is that the study primarily looked at cognitive performance during an extended period of wakefulness (40hrs). Two doses of Modafinil (100mg each) were given during this period (the manufacturer recommended dose appears to be 100-400mg).

Modafinil improved the cognitive performance of Val/Val's (G,G)s across most of the tests (memory tests, mood tests, "Vigor" tests, reaction rate tests, well-being, fatigue, are ones i remember). Met/Met's (A,A)s did not see any statistically significant improvement on most of the tests. One test where there was a small effect for Met/Met's was in subjective well-being.

The study also looked at sleep recovery after the prolonged wakefulness. All participants entered deep sleep faster than normal.

90% of Val/Val's correctly identified their group (placebo vs. drug). 66% of Met/Met's correctly identified their group.

There were 10 people in the Val/Val group and 12 in the Met/Met group. But the small number of participants should be accounted for in the p-tests, as far as I know.

However, like you, I'd still try it given the chance. Regardless, lets hear it for our naturally increased dopamine!


"I think I might give modafinil a go just to see what happens."

Has everyone on HN gone crazy for the day or something?


These threads come up two or three times a year. Usually, the people who indiscriminately encourage everyone to pop pills get voted way up.

I'm seein' robots.


If you think of all of HN as the single person in this comic: http://xkcd.com/242/




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: