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LeoGreene

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PALS
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California
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Pomona
I read about a trial for Provigil to counter the effects of fatigue. Provigil, or modafinil, is indicated for narcolepsy. Has anyone used it?
I also found several people using marijuana. A 2004 study out of San Francisco found it dramatically increased survival time in ALS lab animals. I e-mailed the chief researcher and she said a human trial was pending in Canada.
 
Hi Leo. I hadn't heard about that trial up here in Canada. Could you provide more info on it? If I recall correctly there have been a few people on the forum mention smoking products not bought at 7/11 and they thought it helped. As for the other drug I don't recall anyone on it and a search for it on site turned up only your post.
 
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Trial

I'll have to e-mail the researcher about the marijuana drug trials. She's the one who told me about the trial, but she didn't provide details.
I'm going into my 3rd day on the Provigil and it's really pepped me up. The doc recommended starting at 100 mg. a day for two weeks and then moving to 200 mg. a day. Here's a link to a recent trial: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/als/research/modafinil.htm
 
Provigil was shown to be useful to treat ALS in a study done at the University of Washington. That same doctor has also studied marijuana to treat in ALS and reported some benefit in symtom control. There also is a positive effect in mice with ALS. Here are some of the references, including the medline ID numbers. Good luck, Carolyn


Carter GT, Rosen BS. Marijuana in the management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Am J Hosp Palliat Care 2001; 18(4):264-70 PMID:11467101 [PubMed – indexed for Medline]

Amtmann D, Weydt P, Johnson KL, Jensen MP, Carter GT. Survey of cannabis use in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Am J Hosp Palliat Care 2004; 21(2):95-104 PMID:15055508 [PubMed – indexed for Medline]

Carter GT,.Weiss MD, Lou JS, Jensen MP, Abresch RT, Martin TK, Hecht TW, Han JJ, Weydt P, Kraft GH. Modafinil in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: an open label pilot study. Am J Hosp Palliat Med 2005 22(1):55-59 PMID:15736608 [PubMed – indexed for Medline]
 
Dr. Carter is my dad's doctor. I may ask him about this at his next appointment in January. Depends on if it seems an appropriate question for my dad's condition at that time. If I find anything out that is helpful, I will post again.
 
I believe Bill60 said he takes Provigil - you might want to review his posts.

Liz
 
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