Are Smart Drugs Really That Clever?
Modafinil is a form of prescription medication normally used to treat narcolepsy, but which is increasingly being abused by students across the US and UK for its stimulating properties: in small doses it can improve your memory, increase your focus and prevent you from falling asleep (proving especially handy in the run-up to exams). It is one of a group of cognitive enhancers or "smart pills" that also includes Ritalin and Adderall, both used to treat ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), that have similar properties.
A study by Cincinnati Children's Hospital published in the British Medical Journal last month indicated that use of these latter two drugs in the US has increased by 75 per cent between 1998 and 2005. What's more, a 2005 survey of more than 10,000 US university students found that 4 to 7 per cent of them had tried ADHD drugs at least once to pull pre-exam all-nighters. At some institutions, more than one in four students said they'd sampled the pills. The subject is relatively unstudied in the UK but the trend is the subject of a forthcoming documentary, Wasted Britain, set to air on Current TV on 28 September.
"The problem is you don't know what you're getting," says Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge University's psychiatry department.
So-called 'smart drugs' have been seized upon by undergraduates as a means to stay alert and improve mental performance. But the long-term effects remain unknown. Rob Sharp investigates – and gets students' verdicts on the effects in this article from the UK Independent.
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