Nootropes and exams

[Royston]

I was wondering, should there be legal implications to using nootropes in the future for exams or even for study and revision, as there are for professional athletes who use performance enhancing drugs e.g anabolic steroids, Beta 2 agonists, hCG et.c

 

As we're now approaching the distribution of such pharmaceuticals (I believe in the next couple of years...maybe sooner) do you think students who decide to use such methods have an unfair advantage...or do you believe that whatever makes you more intelligent (improve cognitive ability, improve memory et.c) has to be good.

 

Do you think credibility would be an issue if someone were to use a chemical to improve their academic performance ?

 

If there are no legal implications, then are we destined towards a pill-popping epidemic of students trying to compete for great results, or do you think it won't escalate to that extent, and that there will still be a majority who prefer the traditional method of applying oneself and simply working hard ?

 

If there are legal constraints, then students who obtain such enhancers illegally would have an unfair advantage !

 

Sorry, I realise there's a few points for discussion there, but any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

[badchad]

In short, my opinion is that you are vastly overestimating what these drugs are capable of.

 

I'm relatively unfamiliar with the subject, so I did a pubmed search using the keyword "nootropic" and searched within clinical trials. Looking over the first page, it appears the vast majority are studies performed in patients with dementia and alzheimers.

 

Also, you have to consider how we measure the effects of these drugs. From an experimental standpoint imagine the difficulties in measuring "academic performance" or cognitive fucntion in a group of treated patients vs. controls.

 

So in my opinion there are a lot of drawbacks. First, our limited knowledge (depending on how you look at it) of how thoughts and the brain work in general. Second, devloping an objective measure of "intelligence", "smart" etc. to measure the effects of these drugs.

 

Seems to me the debate is somewhat far off. Perhaps there are others familiar with these compounds.

[Royston]

On retrospect I think you're probably right, I suppose you could take the argument as hypothetical, as there is much work to do in this area.

 

Should of stuck this in speculations.

[tejaswini]

these drugs have almost leathel effects if used frequently. and moreover enhancing academic performance with such drugs is illeagel,(how can it be legal) for the same reason as it is in the field of sports.it's like writing an exam using auto answering quills.impossible.

but afterall it's tempting to have such things around.

[raptor]

In short, my opinion is that you are vastly overestimating what these drugs are capable of.

 

I'm relatively unfamiliar with the subject, so I did a pubmed search using the keyword "nootropic" and searched within clinical trials. Looking over the first page, it appears the vast majority are studies performed in patients with dementia and alzheimers.

 

Also, you have to consider how we measure the effects of these drugs. From an experimental standpoint imagine the difficulties in measuring "academic performance" or cognitive fucntion in a group of treated patients vs. controls.

 

So in my opinion there are a lot of drawbacks. First, our limited knowledge (depending on how you look at it) of how thoughts and the brain work in general. Second, devloping an objective measure of "intelligence", "smart" etc. to measure the effects of these drugs.

 

Seems to me the debate is somewhat far off. Perhaps there are others familiar with these compounds.

 

What about secondary/tertiary students using stimulants (amphetamines, methylphenidate, caffeine...) to help them work longer when under a lot of pressure for exams etc, this is not unheard of.

[vampares]

What about secondary/tertiary students using stimulants (amphetamines, methylphenidate, caffeine...) to help them work longer when under a lot of pressure for exams etc, this is not unheard of.

These are psychotropics as opposed to nootropics or "smart drugs". I think propanolol is a given "nootropic" status. As is deprenyl, pyrogulamate and vinopoticene (I don't think I spelled one of these correctly). Ginkgo balboa might even be considered a smart drug. Which is about the effect any of these others would have. Mostly vasodilators -- nothing that'll take the paint off a car or anything.