Writing this in the off-chance someone is being switched from Provigil to Nuvigil, maybe has MS and maybe doesn’t.
I was and am back on Provigil. When I searched for “Provigil Nuvigil difference” on the Internet, I mostly found things by people with narcolepsy who were on either one with mixed reactions. I found a bit on MS and just Nuvigil, mostly positive. But who is being converted, why, and how’s it going for people with MS? There’s not much there, and experiences will differ, but here’s mine.
Cephalon is losing its patent for Provigil in 2012, so the price of it has been increasing. Meantime, Cephalon is heavily marketing Nuvigil which is a single isomer version of Provigil. Nuvigil is stronger than Provigil and acts longer, so everyone is going on it. It should work better. But for me? It backfired.
I started Provigil as an off-label drug for MS-related fatigue, although a small clinical trial did show it works for MS. Provigil is also used for sleep apnea, which I think I have/had, but Provigil changed that. Nuvigil sounded good as well. But it’s not exactly the same as Provigil.
I knew pretty quickly that Nuvigil wasn’t working for me. Sure – I was awake – but I was in a cloud at best. In the afternoon, I drank coffee like water and still wanted to fall asleep. I couldn’t sleep – it was horrible. People at work knew about this. They said I looked tired and I was – I was a walking/wheeling zombie. And I was depressed. When you go off Provigil, this can happen, and it did. I had 2 really bad days before I just wanted to stare at a wall. I didn’t really feel like the medical community believed me, but I knew I wasn’t me. I fought to get back on Provigil because physically as a zombie I was also getting worse.
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