Opinion needed please,
does anyone take Amantadine or Modafinil ? side effects ? any good ?
Doctors appointment to get one of them tomorow
Thanks
Daniel
I’ve had both. Amantadine seemed to work a wee bit in the beginning, but then seemed to make me worse so I stopped it. I did try it again, years later, but it didn’t work at all that time. Modafinil has been an absolute life saver though. It doesn’t do much for physical fatigue for me, but really helps with mental fatigue.
You should get amantadine no problem as it’s licenced for MS fatigue, but modafinil can be tricky. It’s not licenced for MS, it’s expensive and a lot of PCTs are clamping down on it being prescribed off label (e.g. my neuro can’t now prescribe it for anyone who isn’t already on it). To increase your chances, you could print off research from the internet that shows its efficacy with MS fatigue - have a look on pubmed - and give it to the GP. If the GP is willing, but grimaces when he/she sees the price, suggest the 200mg tablets - they are easy to break into two and work out cheaper than the 100mg tablets.
Side effects: I didn’t have any that I can remember on amantadine, but modafinil made me a bit “jittery”, gave me the odd headache and generally made things seem a wee bit surreal on occasion. It didn’t last very long though; maybe a couple of weeks. It can take a while to get the right dose and timing on modafinil. After quite a bit of trial and error, I found that 100mg at 10am and 100mg at 3pm (later if I want to stay up late) works best for me.
Remember that we are all different. Modafinil works best for me, but it might be the other way round for you. Unfortunately, some people find that neither works for them - hopefully you aren’t in that group!
Karen x
Modafinil does the job for me. It is a drug that I would not be able to manage without. I only had some light headedness when I started Modafinil. It only lasted for about week. No problems ever since.
If I miss a dose I turn into a zombie lol
As for Amantadine I have never taken that.
You could always try one for a couple of weeks and if it does not work for you then you could always switch the other one.
As Karen has rightly said most trusts do not fund the drug anymore, but if you have an understanding gp and they think the drug will benefit you then I don’t see a reason why they can’t prescribe it for you.
Regards
M
thanks for your replies
Daniel
Hi, what dosage do you take. My doctor has said 200mg twice a day but after reading on here that seems way too much.
I guess you mean the dosage for Modafinil? Yes 200mg x twice per day would be a lot and I suspect you’d have the serious jitters on that dose initially. I thought that was the maximum dosage! I used to have 100mg x twice per day, or sometimes (when I was used to the drug at the starting dose) 200mg once per day with maybe topping up an extra 100mg lunchtime ish. The thing to remember is not to take it past about 4pm, cos you may have trouble getting to sleep.
Sue
Hi Daniel
I have really bad exhausting fatigue at the moment and it’s really making me feel bad I’m tempted to try Amentadine again, last time I felt weird on it even though it was only for a few days and I didn’t really notice any difference fatigue wise, but some people say it helps them by stay awake which in turn helps them function mentally. At the minute it’s exhausting just getting to the bathroom let alone anything else!
i never got to try Modifinal as they had stopped prescribing it just as I was allowed to try it.
Surely there their must be trials by now to help this debilitating symptom.
Lets us know how you get on at the doctors.
Ann x