USE OF “SMART DRUGS” ON THE RISE
European nations see biggest increases in use of stimulants such as Ritalin by people seeking brain-boosting effects.
The use of drugs by people hoping to boost mental performance is rising worldwide, finds the largest ever study of the trend. In a survey of tens of thousands of people, 14 percent reported using stimulants at least once in the preceding 12 months in 2017, up from 5 percent in 2015.
The nonmedical use of substances—often dubbed smart drugs—to increase memory or concentration is known as pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE), and it rose in all 15 nations included in the survey. The study looked at prescription medications such as Adderall and Ritalin—prescribed medically to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—as well as the sleep-disorder medication modafinil and illegal stimulants such as cocaine.
The work, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy . . . is based on the Global Drug Survey—an annual, anonymous online questionnaire about drug use worldwide. The survey had 79,640 respondents in 2015 and 29,758 in 2017.
U.S. respondents reported the highest rate of use: In 2017, nearly 30 percent said they had used drugs for PCE at least once in the preceding 12 months, up from 20 percent in 2015.
But the largest increases were in Europe: Use in France rose from 3 percent in 2015 to 16 percent in 2017; and from 5 percent to 23 percent in the United Kingdom. An informal reader survey by Nature in 2008 found that one in five respondents had used drugs to boost concentration or memory…
The study suggests that the spread of U.S.-style practices in ADHD treatment is driving the trend and making drugs more available: Countries with higher rates of ADHD diagnoses, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, have higher rates of nonmedical prescription-drug use for cognitive enhancement…
Nearly half (48 percent) of people said they obtained the drugs through friends; 10 percent bought them from a dealer or over the Internet; 6 percent obtained them from a family member; and 4 percent said that they had their own prescriptions.
Debate continues over whether the nonmedical use of prescription drugs boosts brain performance. Data suggest that some people benefit from certain drugs in specific situations—for example, surgeons using modafinil—but larger population-wide studies report lesser gains and conflicting results…
Arran Frood. Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2018 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. Note: Article was originally published in Nature and reproduced in Scientific American Mind.