Brain Candy: Can Ritalin turn you into an A student?
Thousands of students are using the drug illegally—but are they on to something?
Students in search of the drugs likely have little difficulty getting their hands on them. They can buy them over the Internet, ask a friend or classmate with a prescription to give them the pills, or get their own prescription like Dale did. There are a lot of pills out there: according to the health care consultancy IMS Canada, more than 1.3 million Ritalin prescriptions were handed out in Canada in 2008, a seven-fold increase since 1992.
Some experts say these self-medicating students may be on to something: these drugs may indeed have brain boosting powers. A group of ethicists, psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists recently published a commentary in Nature, one of the world’s leading science journals, where they argued that “cognitive enhancement, unlike enhancement for sports competition, could lead to substantive improvements in the world.” They also suggested that taking the drugs may be morally equivalent to other, more familiar enhancements such as drinking coffee.
Henry Greely, one of the commentary’s co-authors and a Stanford University law professor who specializes in neurolaw, is quick to point out that Ritalin and Adderall can be dangerous when not taken properly. “By no means are we recommending that they be put in vending machines and the drinking supply; they are powerful drugs with significant risks.” According to FDA-MedWatch, a voluntary reporting program of the FDA, there were 186 methylphenidate-Ritalin-related deaths in the U.S. between 1990 and 2000. Adderall, a stimulant that is growing in popularity, has been reported to sometimes cause vomiting, insomnia and severe mood changes.
But Greely says that we should be open to the possibility that these drugs, after careful study and when used under supervision, could in fact improve our minds. He believes that extensive research is required to examine the short and long term impacts of stimulants, improve their safety—and explore their potential.
“We are kind of in the ostrich mode of our response to this problem: let’s keep our heads in the sand and then we won’t have to work on it,” he says. “We’ve got to get our heads out of the sand.”
Dale did get his head out of the sand when he entered the University of Victoria, albeit in a different way: he says he stopped using stimulants, yet continued to work as hard or harder than he did in high school. But looking back on the experience, would he recommend that a student use a stimulant if they thought it could improve their grades? “Come on, absolutely,” he says. “I would even encourage people to take it in the workplace.”
Some people are. And the office could be brain boosting drugs’ next frontier. When Nature carried out an informal survey of 1,400 of its readers—most of whom are highly educated science, engineering and education professionals—one in five respondents said they had at some point taken drugs such Ritalin and Provogil for the non-medical purpose of improving concentration, focus and memory.
- photo courtesy of Steve Roman
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I occasionally use Provigil for times when I have a high workload and really need to focus. My doctor has no qualms about prescribing it saying it is routinely used by combat pilots on missions. It is safer than Ritlin apparently but not quite as effective. Caveat: Take it early in the morning! Even half a 200mg pill will keep you “wired” until late evening. Your tolerance may vary! Also I had some mood changes after 3 straight days of use. I don’t recommend taking it more than one day in a row.
Ritalin is not a wonder drug that makes you smart. What it does is wake you up temporarily when you’re tired.
Unfortunately, many students (and people in general) do not make sleep a priority. When a student is overtired, concentration, memory, and motivation are diminished.
Rather than taking drugs to stay awake, there should be a focus on sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene means waking and going to bed at the same times each day, allowing sufficient time for sleep, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine when possible, especially at night.
If you’re having difficulty concentrating, chances are you’re tired. Take a short nap (20 minutes or so), take a little walk, stretch, and perhaps have a snack. Chances are you’ll find yourself much more attentive when you resume studying after this break.
For more information on sleep, visit the Sleep Wake Disorders Association of Toronto web site at http://www.geocities.com/swdatoronto .
Using Ritalin at McGill as a study aid dates back more than a decade. In 1961 I was cramming for finals when a fellow student told me that he was using it, obtained without prescription from a pharmacy a few blocks from the campus. Several of us ended up using it for a few weeks. Unfortunately, at best I think that all the benefit I got from it was a placebo effect, and my buddy claimed that he blanked out in one exam that he had overdosed on the night before.
Great piece. I had no idea such drugs were so prevalent. Is it cheating? I’d say so.
I definatly don’t think this would be cheating, because you still do the work yourself, it’s just that you are more effective in doing so.
It is in a way cheating. I know people at my university who take Ritalin and adderal in order to help them write papers and they have seen remarkable improvements in their marks. It is the same case as with professional athletes that do not use steroids…how are they to compete with their juiced up colleagues?