Monday, December 08, 2008

Scientists Back Brain Drugs for Healthy People


This article ran in my local paper this morning. Can't say I disagree, as long as the drugs don't cause harm. Not so sure about Adderall and Ritalin, since they can be addictive and sometimes have nasty side-effects.

What do you all think? Do you or would you use these types of drugs if they were legal? Most of us already use caffeine, so what's the difference?
Scientists back brain drugs for healthy people

By Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Healthy people should have the right to boost their brains with pills, like those prescribed for hyperactive kids or memory-impaired older folks, several scientists contend in a provocative commentary.

College students are already illegally taking prescription stimulants like Ritalin to help them study, and demand for such drugs is likely to grow elsewhere, they say.

“We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function,” and doing it with pills is no more morally objectionable than eating right or getting a good night’s sleep, these experts wrote in an opinion piece published online Sunday by the journal Nature.

The commentary calls for more research and a variety of steps for managing the risks.

As more effective brain-boosting pills are developed, demand for them is likely to grow among middle-aged people who want youthful memory powers and multitasking workers who need to keep track of multiple demands, said one commentary author, brain scientist Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Almost everybody is going to want to use it,” said Farah.

“I would be the first in line if safe and effective drugs were developed that trumped caffeine,” another author, Michael Gazzaniga of the University of California, Santa Barbara, declared in an e-mail.

The seven authors, from the United States and Britain, include ethics experts and the editor-in-chief of Nature as well as scientists. They developed their case at a seminar funded by Nature and Rockefeller University in New York. Two authors said they consult for pharmaceutical companies; Farah said she had no such financial ties.

Some health experts agreed that the issue deserves attention. But the commentary didn’t impress Leigh Turner of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics.

“It’s a nice puff piece for selling medications for people who don’t have an illness of any kind,” Turner said.
Read the rest of the article.

Here are the recommendations the scientists offer:
While supporting the concept that healthy adults should be able to use brain-boosting drugs, the authors called for:

—More research into the use, benefits and risks of such drugs. Much is unknown about the current medications, such as the risk of dependency when used for this purpose, the commentary said.

—Policies to guard against people being coerced into taking them.

—Steps to keep the benefits from making socio-economic inequalities worse.

—Action by doctors, educators and others to develop policies on the use of such drugs by healthy people.

—Legislative action to allow drug companies to market the drugs to healthy people if they meet regulatory standards for safety and effectiveness.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said she agreed with the commentary that the nonprescribed use of brain-boosting drugs must be studied.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems to me like it would make life more complicated and expensive.
If it became widespread, then it could mean that people who do use the drugs could have a competetive advantage in education/ careers, which could potentially 'force' people who did not want to take the drugs, for certain reasons such as expense, to use them.

Unknown said...

Well.. Rich people ALREADY have competitive advantages. it's called tutoring, coaching, surgery, healthier food (organic and quality COSTS), gyms, better schools/ competitive entry to and the ability to attend w/out working at colleges and last but not least let us not forget the "good ol'boys" network. What's one more drug?

Anonymous said...

That's true. But I don't think cost or class is the only issue. If the drugs were comparable in cost (at least eventually) to tobacco then it seems fair to assume that anyone could access them. But if one had other reasons not to use the drug, regardless of wealth or class - personal, philosophical or otherwise, then it seems there could be substantial pressure on them to join in. I personally would not want to add a drug like this to all the other things I need, or am expected, to do in order to maintain my health and quality of life and make myself satisfactorally employable. If it became normal, then we would need even more resources to meet this elevated criteria of 'normal' to sustain our civilisation. How intelligent does the average person really need to be?

Anonymous said...

I think it's a horrible idea. First, all drugs have side effects. Especially the ones that affect the brain. Ever read a black-box warning on a bottle of antidepressants?

Second, there's no pill that can make you smarter. I think the state of our world is proof of that. This is just another way for the drug companies to make more money.

Geez. Get enough sleep, eat good food, and exercise, and you won't NEED to pop a pill to get through the day (and that's where it'll eventually lead, once everybody is trying to keep up with the pharmaceutical Joneses).