When it comes to dealing with anxiety or meeting an impending deadline, the promise of a ‘smart medication’ that will help you focus, learn and think quicker is alluring. At least, that's what the present state of affairs on college campuses suggests. Prescription medicines are being used by a growing number of students and academics to improve academic performance, similar to how you may take a cup of coffee to stay awake.
Off-label, so-called ‘smart medicines’ are being taken for their ostensibly cognitive boosting properties. Because cognition refers to how we gather, analyze, and retain information, the medications promise improved memorization and attention in healthy people.
Methylphenidate (Ritalin) and amphetamine (Adderall) are two prevalent smart medications available in the market. These stimulants are often used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Another medication known as Modafinil has recently become the new favorite among college students. Modafinil is a drug that promotes alertness and energy and is primarily used to treat excessive drowsiness associated with the sleep condition narcolepsy and others.
Modafinil online UK, methylphenidate, and amphetamine have been shown to improve cognitive processes including learning and working memory at least on some laboratory tests. Modafinil online UK increased cognitive task performance in sleep-deprived clinicians, according to one research. Modafinil 200mg increased planning and accuracy on specific cognitive activities in healthy individuals who were not sleep-deprived. Similarly, methylphenidate and amphetamine improved healthy volunteers' performance in specific cognitive activities.
So it's possible that smart pharmaceuticals actually make you smarter. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. Despite some promising results, research shows that cognitive boosters have little impact on healthy people. Modafinil, for example, demonstrates boosting effects in sleep deprivation situations, despite some research suggesting mild enhancing effects in well-rested people. Although Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts) had relatively minor impacts on cognition, users claimed their performance was improved as compared to placebo, according to new research by Martha Farah and colleagues.
Furthermore, the effects of stimulant medications on cognition are frequently dependent on baseline performance. Stimulants improve performance in those with poor baseline cognitive capacities, but they typically degrade performance in people who are already performing at their best. Indeed, Modafinil only improves cognitive performance in people with a lower (but still above-average) IQ.
The hoopla around medications like Modafinil and methylphenidate is clearly false. These medicines are effective in treating cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's, ADHD, and schizophrenia patients, but they are unlikely to provide major cognitive improvements to healthy people.
Sleep is an underappreciated cognitive booster. It helps to improve long-term memory as well as creativity. For example, it is generally known that memories are consolidated during sleep, which is a process that "fixes" freshly created memories and dictates how they are fashioned. Not only does lack of sleep make most of us irritable and tired, but it also has a significant negative impact on our cognitive ability. Exercise and a healthy diet can also help with some areas of cognition. Both pharmaceuticals and "natural" enhancers, it turns out, produce comparable physiological changes in the brain, such as increased blood flow and neuronal development in areas like the hippocampus - a complex brain structure embedded deep into the temporal lobe.
However, there is a paucity of data from big, well-designed research to prove that some of these supplements are consistently effective and fully safe. Experts cannot state with certainty that over-the-counter nootropics increase thinking or brain function — or that everyone may safely take them — due to the dearth of studies.