Doping: Not just for jocks anymore
Posted on December 8th, 2008 – 7:10 AMBy Josephine Marcotty
Sports doping is controversial enough. Well, how about brain doping?
At college campuses, poker tournaments and even orchestra halls use of prescription drugs to boost concentration, relaxation and memory in healthy people is on the rise. A 2005 survey of 10,000 U.S. students found that 4 to 7 percent have used prescription stimulants. On some campuses the rate is as high as 25 percent.
Professors, it seems, use them as well.
And why not?
That’s the question posed in a commentary published Sunday in Nature, the international science and medical journal. The authors, all of them major academic voices in law, medical ethics and health care policy, make the case that healthy adults “should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs.”
After all, they say, we drink coffee and take Vitamins, which also improve brain function.Why not a pill?
“We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function. In a world in which human work spans and lifespans are increasing, cognitive enhancements tools including pharmacological will be increasingly useful for improved quality of life and extended work productivity.”
The drugs they are talking about are medications used to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions, primarily Ritalin and Adderall, used mostly for ADHD, and Aricept, used for Alzheimer’s disease. They work in healthy, people, too. They provide some memory enhancement and improve concentration.
More is on the way. A lot more. Several drugs designed to improve brain power in healthy people are now in clinical trials. Implantable brain chips are in the works as well.
Why is this different than using performance enhancing drugs in sports? Because in sports, it’s cheating, and it’s cheating because it’s against the rules established by the likes of the NFL. If brain boosting drugs are banned, then:
“Any good set of rules would need to distinguish today’s allowed cognitive enhancements, from private tutors to double espressos, from the newer methods, if they are to be banned.”
Of course, they say, more research and more debate is necessary. The drugs are not without risks, but they are minimal if used prudently, the authors say.
Interesting questions. Will we all be taking our memory enhancers in the morning along with our calcium and Vitamin D? Should high school students be allowed to use them while taking the SAT? What about college students before a big exam?
On the other hand, such drugs might prove useful for air traffic controllers, musicians and airport security workers.
Would you use them? Since prescription drugs are pretty easy to get anyway, should their use be legal and regulated?
7 Responses to "Doping: Not just for jocks anymore"
A pill to lower your b/p, a pill to lower your lipids, a pill to lose weight and now this?
What ever happened to taking responsibility for yourself? How about diet and exercise?
In this case how about doing things like crosswords, sudoku, reading books that make you think, take up a new challenging hobby, engaging in conversation to stimulate the brain or join a discussion group.
“YOU WANT ME TO WHAT? JUST GIMME THE PILL!!!”
I wonder what MENSA thinks about this?
I want to know what these brain inducing drugs are and where I can get some! lmortl@comcast.net
Thanks!
The drugs mentioned most often are the stimulants Ritalen and Adderall, both used to treat ADHD. They improve focus and information processing. Also, Aricept, used for Alzheimer’s. But they can only be legally acquired with a prescription from a doctor. JM
I have a friend who abused adderrall because he thought it made him “smarter”. He thought it was a “safe” and “cheap” alternative to illegal stimulants. He was recently intitutionalized in a mental facilty for the second time. He became increasingly anti-social and paranoid and went for long periods with minimal sleep. He had paranoid hallucinations and was convinced everyone was out to get him. I hope he recovers eventually. Legal or not, amphetamine abuse destroys minds and lives. Don’t kid yourself because it is “medicine”. Speed does not make you smarter.
No, Adderall or Ritalin won’t make you smarter. However, it will help you concentrate, so that you can learn more effectively. I struggled with concentration all thru school and the early years of my career. Now that I take Adderall, my brain is settled in and I can do the work I’m capable of. It’s been a huge benefit to me, with little downside.
Advice from certain “academics” on expanding access to psychoactive drugs is cavalier and mistaken. Read the paper or watch TV News for the latest on our epidemic of methamphetamine police calls (illegal and cheap to make and sell) and widespread use of cocaine (crack, powder - illegal)) associated with violent acts and psychoses. Moreover, harm from the widespread use of “recreational” marihuana (also illegal) is second only to the morbidity, mortality and societal costs of (legal) alcohol abuse on our college campuses.
It is a logical fallacy to recommend deregulating stimulant medications such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) and dextroamphetamine (Adderall) to over-the-counter status. These drugs are now obtainable by prescription as part of an evidence-base treatment of attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy, among other medical conditions. Professional evaluation and ongoing care planning (including prescription monitoring) is good medicine, and a valuable medical service. Doctors need more training in addiction medicine.
When students or their professors seek a “boost” to cram for an exam or obtain University tenure, or bus or semi trailer drivers need a pill to stay “awake” to be on schedule, they flirt with serious costs and consequences to their personal health, and our public health as well. Moreover, they are setting a lousy example as students or professors or vehicle operators. Instead, would the professors do a sexy campaign on healthy sleep hygiene rather than expanding the use of mind altering using drugs outside of a medical diagnosis? In my addiction psychiatry practice http://www.leebeechermd.medem.com, I see a lot of people who have major mental symptoms like paranoia, anxiety, obsessive preoccupations, and suicidal depression as a direct result of their use of illicit drugs — including marihuana (THC). Prescribed medications can also have this unintended effect. Widespread interpersonal and family dysfunctions inevitably result.– LB
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It’s too bad your management didn’t aquire some of this doping crap. Maybe you wouldn’t be on the verge of bankruptcy.
Nice column by Nick Coleman. More pissed off potential subscribers.
