Modafinil (Provigil) for Autism and ADHD: Is It Safe and Does It Work?
If you are caring for an autistic child who also struggles with attention, impulsivity, and relentless daytime sleepiness, you have probably run into modafinil in late night searches. It is tempting, a single tablet that might mean fewer meltdowns at school pickup, fewer calls from the teacher, and a child who can actually stay awake long enough to learn.
Here is the blunt reality: we do not have strong human clinical trial evidence that modafinil treats ADHD symptoms in autistic children, and major evidence syntheses of medication trials for ADHD symptoms in autism did not find eligible randomized trials for modafinil.…