We use essential cookies (authentication, your saved goals/stack) by default. With your permission we'll also enable privacy-respecting analytics (Vercel Web Analytics, anonymous load-time metrics) and error-replay diagnostics (Sentry — DOM snapshots only when an error fires) so we can fix bugs faster. Learn more about cookies
Flm2.8
Flmodafinil (CRL-40,940) Research
Mostly mechanism / observationalLimited safety
5 peer-reviewed studies
What the evidence says
Mostly mechanism / observational
Most Flmodafinil (CRL-40,940) studies are mechanism or observational rather than RCTs that measure a clinical effect — keep findings provisional.
Most evidence is from mixed-quality randomised trials published 1997–2026.
Based on 5 studies · 2 RCTs
Confidence
Low
By outcome
Safety profile
Mostly mechanism / observational5 studies
Focus & attention (modafinil-class, unproven for flmodafinil)
Mostly mechanism / observational4 studies
Wakefulness & fatigue
Mostly mechanism / observational3 studies
Cognition (modafinil parent evidence)
Too few graded studies2 studies
Sleep disruption / insomnia
Too few graded studies2 studies
Steady research
1 study in the last 5 years
199720112026
1Systematic Review2015
When more complex assessments are used, modafinil appears to consistently engender enhancement of attention, executive functions, and learning. Importantly, we did not observe any preponderances for side effects or mood changes.
Battleday RM, Brem AK. · European Neuropsychopharmacology (2015)
MODAFINIL (parent), NOT FLADRAFINIL: a systematic review of modafinil for cognitive neuroenhancement in healthy non-sleep-deprived adults — included here to show what the RELATED drug does, not what fladrafinil does
Found modest, task-dependent benefits to attention, executive function and learning with modafinil, especially on more complex tasks
Cited by fladrafinil vendors as if it were fladrafinil evidence — it is NOT; fladrafinil is a different fluorinated analogue/prodrug with no human cognition trials
Compared with placebo, modafinil 200 and 400 mg significantly increased the mean sleep latency on the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test by 40% and 54% ... Modafinil produced no changes in blood pressure or heart rate ... As little as a 200-mg daily dose of modafinil is therefore an effective and well-tolerated treatment.
Broughton RJ, Fleming JA, George CF, Hill JD, Kryger MH, Moldofsky H, Montplaisir JY, Morehouse RL, Moscovitch A, Murphy WF. · Neurology (1997)
MODAFINIL (parent), NOT FLADRAFINIL: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial of modafinil for excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy — real human evidence for the PARENT drug
Modafinil reduced objective and subjective daytime sleepiness vs placebo and was generally well tolerated in this supervised clinical population
Establishes the modafinil-class wakefulness effect in humans — but for modafinil, NOT for the unstudied analogue/prodrug fladrafinil
Treatment with modafinil resulted in significant improvement in two objective measures of EDS ... The most frequent adverse experience was headache ... The data indicate that modafinil has an excellent safety profile and is very well tolerated.
US Modafinil in Narcolepsy Multicenter Study Group. · Neurology (2000)
MODAFINIL (parent), NOT FLADRAFINIL: a large multicenter randomized placebo-controlled trial of modafinil for excessive daytime somnolence in narcolepsy — parent-drug human evidence
Modafinil improved objective wakefulness vs placebo; the most frequent adverse event was headache — the kind of symptom extrapolated to fladrafinil
Reinforces the modafinil-class effect AND its typical adverse-event profile in supervised humans, for the PARENT compound only
Six volunteers ingested 20 mg of either flmodafinil or fladrafinil ... Since fladrafinil acts as a prodrug for flmodafinil, these metabolites were likewise detected after ingestion of fladrafinil ... When fladrafinil is administered, a slight offset can be seen until the maximum concentration of flmodafinil is reached, related to the conversion of the prodrug fladrafinil to flmodafinil.
Krug O, Guddat S, Görgens C, Walpurgis K, Toma F, Thomas A, Thevis M. · Drug Testing and Analysis (2026)
FLADRAFINIL-SPECIFIC (and the one direct HUMAN study): a doping-control study in which six volunteers ingested 20 mg of fladrafinil or flmodafinil, characterizing how fladrafinil converts to flmodafinil and how both are metabolized and eliminated to define anti-doping detection windows
Confirms the fladrafinil→flmodafinil PRODRUG conversion in humans — after fladrafinil ingestion the flmodafinil metabolites (flmodafinil acid and sulfone) were detected, with a slight offset to peak flmodafinil
Documents grey-market use of fladrafinil/flmodafinil 'outside the medical field, particularly for the enhancement of cognitive performance' — describing the use, not any clinical benefit
NLS-4 at 64 mg/kg induced significantly longer wakefulness duration than modafinil at 150 mg/kg ... Our results indicate that NLS-4 is a highly potent wake-promoting drug with no sign of hypersomnia rebound.
Luca G, Bandarabadi M, Konofal E, Lecendreux M, Ferrié L, Figadère B, Tafti M. · Frontiers in Neuroscience (2018)
METABOLITE-SPECIFIC, NOT FLADRAFINIL: the closest in-vivo characterization of fladrafinil's active metabolite — flmodafinil under its synonym lauflumide / NLS-4 — a mouse EEG/EMG study comparing it to modafinil and vehicle
Lauflumide (flmodafinil) 64 mg/kg intraperitoneally produced significantly LONGER wakefulness than modafinil 150 mg/kg, supporting the 'more potent than modafinil' framing — but in mice, not humans
Recovery sleep after lauflumide showed less NREM and less delta activity than modafinil, which the authors read as a lower need for recovery despite longer wakefulness