WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES: Authorities said that of the nine people rushed to hospital with blisters between February 2024 and 2025, three developed potentially deadly ‘toxic epidermal necrolysis’
New “energy boosting” tablets have landed nine people in hospital after horrific blisters and sores erupted across their bodies.
Hospitals reported that nine people – seven men and two women – have been given emergency treatment over the last year after ingesting the drugs modafinil and armodafinil in Singapore. The drugs, which are prescription only and used to treat narcolepsy, have recently developed a recreational appeal among the general public.
Students who use the drugs to stay awake so they can study for exams are reportedly among the nine users – aged between 18 and 57 – to have been rushed to hospital after dosing up. They secured pills from street sellers or from their friends – unaware of the raft of severe side effects they can cause.
Singapore authorities revealed they had become aware of hospitalisations from modafinil or armodafinil between February 2024 and 2025, with the local Health Sciences Authority (HSA) revealing one of the patients had taken the drug as “supplements”. They had hoped to “boost energy and health”, before they were rushed for emergency treatment.
Of the nine patients taken to hospital over the 12-month period, six developed a condition named Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), a potentially life-threatening reaction in which the skin blisters and peels. The rash typically develops in the upper body before spreading across the face, arms, legs, down to the genitals and beyond.
The HSA said in a statement that one “male consumer” in his 40s who developed the condition also experienced “severe oral ulcers” that left him “unable to eat and speak”. A representative said: “A male consumer in his 40s developed painful blistering rashes and peeling of the skin, and also had severe oral ulcers that left him unable to eat and speak for a few days.”
The remaining three patients suffered from toxic epidermal necrolysis, another, more severe, form of SJS that became life-threatening for one man in his 20s admitted to hospital. The HSA said: “They had serious skin reactions and developed painful blistering rashes and peeling of skin that spread across the entire body.
“One of them, a male consumer in his 20s, experienced life-threatening blistering of his skin covering 60 per cent of his body, including his face, chest, arms, genitals, legs and the soles of his feet.” Despite developing the dangerous condition, the HSA said the consumers are now recovering, adding: “There were no mortalities.”
