The mutagenic effect of psychostimulant modafinil in Wistar rats in vivo.

The demands imposed by today's world require a fast and efficient society, then, significant section of the population looks for support from psychotropic medicine. Modafinil is a psychostimulant that promotes wakefulness, it being recommended for treatment of narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, and shift-work sleep disorder, besides being a cognitive function potentiator. However, chemical components of drugs can alter genetic material. Thus, the present study evaluated the cytotoxic and clastogenic/mutagenic potential of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 mg of Modafinil/mL of corn oil/100g body weight in acute treatments and subacute treatments, 15 days, to Rattus norvegicus, treated via gavage in a single daily dose. The drug was not cytotoxic at any of the evaluated doses in either of the treatments. However, the medicine showed clastogenic/mutagenic activity in the acute treatment group at the standard dose and at double dose. Data from the present study indicates that there should be greater caution as to the use of this psychostimulant by human beings.