Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Sat 12 Apr 2008 02:00 AM PDT
Brain Doping In Academics, No Joking
Nature survey shows
that 20 percent of 1400 participant scientists had used cognition
enhancing drugs to stimulate focus and concentration or memory. Last
week I linked to a story about the NIH cracking down on “brain doping:â€
scientists who use drugs to enhance their cognitive performance. The
story was of course a prank perpetrated by Jonathan Eisen of the UC
Davis Genome Center. Eisen's joke, it turns out, is a little more
on the mark than he thought. Today, Nature magazine publishes the
results of an online survey of 1400 scientists from 60 countries. One in five respondents said they had used drugs for non-medical reasons to stimulate their focus, concentration or memory. For
those who choose to use, methylphenidate (Ritalin) was the most
popular: 62% of users reported taking it. 44% reported taking modafinil
(Provigil), and 15% said they had taken beta blockers such as
propanolol, revealing an overlap between drugs. 80 respondents
specified other drugs that they were taking. The most common of these
was adderall, an amphetamine similar to methylphenidate. But there were
also reports of centrophenoxine, piractem, dexedrine and various
alternative medicines such as ginkgo and omega-3 fatty acids. The
most popular reason for taking the drugs was to improve concentration.
Improving focus for a specific task (admittedly difficult to
distinguish from concentration) ranked a close second and counteracting
jet lag ranked fourth, behind ‘other’ which received a few interesting
reasons, such as “partyâ€, “house cleaning†and “to actually see if
there was any validity to the afore-mentioned articleâ€. Use of
drugs that enhance physical performance is widely banned in
professional and amateur sports. But what about cognitive enhancers,
which are becoming increasingly available? Should their use be
restricted or banned? What about coffee, a well-known lubricator of
scientific thought? Is an espresso okay, but not a caffeine pill? All
participants who took part in the survey were asked 10 questions
designed to gauge their attitudes towards neuroenhancing drugs. Almost
all respondents (96%) thought people with neuropsychiatric disorders
who have severe memory and concentration problems should be given
cognition-enhancing drugs. But perhaps surprisingly, a high four-fifths
thought that healthy
adults should be able to take the drugs if they want to. And 69%
reported that they would risk mild side effects to take such drugs
themselves. When asked whether healthy children under the age of
16 should be restricted from taking these drugs, unsurprisingly, most
respondents (86%) said that they should. But one-third of respondents
said they would feel pressure to give cognition-enhancing drugs to
their children if other children at school were taking them. This
was an online poll, which may have skewed or exaggerated the results.
However it seems clear that when it comes to chemical brain
enhancement, the future is here.
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