Drug only helps slightly to keep shift workers awake at night

Treatment with modafinil, recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of the extreme sleepiness of patients with shift work sleep disorder, reduced this symptom and produced a small but significant improvement in performance in a randomised placebo controlled study (New England Journal of Medicine 2005;353: 476-86). Yet measured levels of performance were much lower than what such patients need to function at a normal level, and more effective therapies are required, the authors conclude.

Members of the US Modafinil in Shift Work Sleep Disorder Study Group did …