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This is what you said. You were wrong. To be clear, this isn't a "hurr durr Biden has dementia" comment. I think they're both likely taking it or something like it. And, again, I am not making a judgement about it, I think that the President of the United States should be able to use every medical tool available to them if it helps them perform their duties (traditional amphetamines absolutely would not do this).
That drug is not being used in the context of the GOP allegations with 100% certainty. Dementia treatment drugs, including that one you linked, are not just pop them before the debate and your "symptom free" and/or all of a sudden a word smith. We don't have drugs that bring people back to the degree the GOP is claiming Biden is, and trying to both sides this just gives validation to these wild conspiracy theories.
Biden is old, and that is what people are seeing and trying to both sides. There are times when an 81 year old man is going to be unsure what to do, but it's because they are old and the world has changed a lot in 80+ years. But we also have Fox and others editing videos, like cropping Biden interacting with a paratrooper so they are out of the frame and he looks like he is facing the wrong way and lost. This is part of their "flood the zone with shit" plan that makes it so we are even discussing this like it's a both sides issue instead of just Trump being a few years away from being another Regan.
Edit - autocorrect hates me. 😩
Modafinil, and other drugs in its class, aren't "dementia treatment drugs." That's what the study was attempting to establish, and there seem to be promising results. But for now they're still just "wakefulness promoting agents" (or according to wiki, the class is now called: "eugeroic") that are used for narcolepsy and shift sleep disorder. Also maybe off-label for "excessive daytime sleepiness" due to... Whatever can make people excessively sleepy I guess.
They are given to fighter jet pilots who need to stay awake for very long missions (source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240314-the-drug-pilots-take-to-stay-awake)
I won't speculate too much on Trump's mental health situation, dude probably has tertiary syphilis at this point. He is clearly sundowning and showing the hallmarks of actual dementia (e.g. the stench, etc.). Huh, guess I speculated a bit after all.
Biden, on the other hand, is just old and facing the normal level of cognitive decline that anyone at his age with such a stressful job would face. Not to mention that he's openly struggled with a speech impairment all his life, which can certainly make him appear more deficient than he actually is. I think his decline has been greatly exaggerated and meme-ified by the left and the right, and is really no comparison to the actual legitimate mental health clusterfuck that is Donald Trump's brain.
In Biden's case, modafinil (or probably armodafinil or some new shit that's better) could for sure appear to do exactly as you say. That is, make him more coherent, alert, with increased memory and general cognitive abilities. In about 30 minutes. And it would last prob 8-10 hours or so.
These drugs really are fascinating, you should do some more research before assuming they're like any amphetamine, coming with all of that baggage. But there is a reason they are specifically not called "stimulants."
I understand the urge to make comparisons to what you already know, but this class of drugs really is very uniquely different and have nearly zero recreational value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugeroic
There is a HUGE difference in my mind on what is being debated here, and what the Far Right are alleging. The Far Right is saying that Biden has dementia like symptoms 90% of the time, and then for big things like the State of the Union and now this debate, someone gives him a bunch of drugs and all of a sudden his dementia is 100% gone and he is sharp and full of energy. All the stimulants in the world aren't going to reverse the stage of dementia they allege that Biden has (or that Trump has - and may well be self treating that way).
I did a little research of my own to see if any actual studies existed about the effect of stimulants on people with dementia and found, this one and this one.
The first had the following quote:
This was also after 6 months, not a pill before "show time". Also remember that Biden is 81, to much up could turn his lights off.
The second study found this:
This study was over 12 months, so double the other and nothing.
Edit - ugh .. spelling.