Experimental Study Of Effects Of Madafinil On Cognition And Mood During 48h Sleep Deprivation

The research of sleep deprivation is very important among researches about sleep. Sleep deprivation (SD) occurs more and more frequently because of the demand from the study,work and duties at night. Continous and sustained operations existed widely in the military tasks and many factors could have psychological and physiological effect on soldiers, which would further affect the performance.Pharmacologic agents promoting wakefulness have long attracted the attention of thoes in charge of military operations worldwide. At present, scientists believe that the use of stimulants at proper moment, with proper dose and proper method may be the best choice. The previous study on coping strategy of SD mainly focus on stimulants such as amphetamines and caffeine and bezodiazepines. These drugs, however, have distinct side-effects such as drug-resistance and addiction. Modafinil is a novel wakefulness-promoting agent. The research results of modafinil in military environment were discussed. The resuts indicate that modafinil is a safe and effective psychostimulant. It is a fine countermeasure for sleep deprivation or prolonged operations. There is a tendency that modafinil will replace amphetamine and caffeine. Modafinil is a centrally active alpha-1 adrenergic agonist, but its exact mechanism is unkown. Modafinil has been shown to produce highly selective CNS stimulation. Its toxicity is minimal, and it has a relatively low abuse potential. And domestic research in this field has just begun. To meet the needs of the future high-tech war, it is necessary to investigate whether the stimulants are effective and feasible to overcome the effects of sleep deprivation.Our aims are to study modafinil as countermeasures for the effect on alert,memory and mood state during 48h sleep deprivation.The research include two parts. The first study explores modafinil on alert and memory of healthy male during 48h of sleep deprivation; the second study was explores modafinil on mood of healthy male during 48h of sleep deprivation.In the first experiment, eighteen cadets(23y～24y) with normal sleep wake habits were divided into 3 groups randonlu: experimental group (n=3) and control group (n=3). The whole experiment was from 7:00 of the first day to 7:00 of the third day, totally 48 hours. Subjects repeatedly finished psychological tests. The testing times were arranged at 07:00 of the first day, 02:00,14:00 of the second day and 02:00,07:00 of the third day. The tests include the letter cancellation test, the work memory test.In the second experiment, the design of tow stype and crossover experiment was still adopted. Experimental subject and grouping method were same as the first experiment. The tests include the Profile Of Mood States(POMS),Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90).The main results are as follows:1. Dring sleep deprivation, the correct concealing numbers pre minute(CCNM)had obvious difference between experimented and control groups (P<0.05). The former was higher than the latter. But the rate of correct concealing pre minute had no obvious difference between experimented and control groups.2. Only in content working memory, the reaction time of working memory had obvious difference between experimented and control group (P <0.05).3. During the measurement of mood state, all the scores of POMS indexes had obvious difference between experimented and control groups besides the scores of POMS indexes: A, D, C.4. The factors of total score, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety ideation were significantly lower than those of the control group (P <0.05) after sleep deprivation.The main conclusions are as follows:1. The level of arousal decreased, vigilance declined and cognitive abilities were affected during 48h sleep deprivation.2. The level of mood state was affected during 48h sleep deprivation.3. Different cognitive tests had different sensitivety to sleep deprivation. The LCT test, the working memory test (a), could react the damage of cognitive abilities during sleep deprivation and the improvement of countermeasures. Whereas the working memory test (b), because they were easy, could not show significant change.4. During sleep deprivation, modafinil can improve alert and cognitive abilities, enhance efficiency of work and decrease errors.5. During sleep deprivation, modafinil can decrease somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, tension-anxiety, enhance vigor-activity, alert and self-confidence.