April 10, 2008

Many Academics Use Drugs to Enhance Their Brain Power, Survey Suggests

College students have long resorted to popping Ritalin and other stimulants to give themselves a mental leg up, but an informal survey by Nature magazine reveals that many science professionals are also taking drugs for the express purpose of improving their cognitive capacities.

In an online survey of 1,400 readers, Nature found that 20 percent had taken pharmaceuticals for the nonmedical purpose of improving their concentration, focus, and memory. Most of the people who responded to the survey were involved in science, engineering, or education. “The numbers suggest a significant amount of drug-taking among academics,” the magazine said.

The survey focused on three drugs: Ritalin, the anti-sleep drug Provigil, and beta blockers (which are used to treat cardiac conditions but can also reduce anxiety). Over 60 percent of the people who admitted using the drugs for cognitive reasons said they used Ritalin, while 44 percent said they used Provigil, which is known generically as modafinil. Some 15 percent said they used beta blockers.

Respondents who said they used such drugs were evenly split between people who said they took them daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. Nine out of 10 of those respondents said they used the medications to improve concentration and attention. Many said they took them to enhance memory, problem-solving, and planning.

The numbers revealed by the survey show that “scientists are not immune to substance abuse,” said Wilson M. Compton, director of the division of epidemiology, services, and prevention at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In an interview with The Chronicle, Dr. Compton said, “This is an example where you think people who are highly educated and knowledgeable might know better, and that’s not necessarily the case.”

Because the survey was not a scientific study, he said, it would be impossible to draw wider conclusions about how many people inside or outside academe actually use such drugs.

Dr. Compton was most concerned by the high percentage of people who said they were taking Ritalin, which can be addictive. “The attitude toward these drugs indicated by this survey is that people see them as being safe and not a concern,” he said. “That’s a problem when these are potentially addictive and can be associated with complications.”

Provigil is less well-known than Ritalin, and Dr. Compton said it was not known whether it was addictive. The drug helps people stay awake and is most often prescribed for treating narcolepsy and other sleep disorders.

Nature decided to conduct its survey as a follow-up to a commentary late last year by two scientists who reported that several colleagues were using Provigil to work longer hours and improve their concentration. In an article in The Chronicle in December, Martha J. Farah, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, said that many academics used Provigil to alleviate the symptoms of jet lag when attending conferences overseas. She said she had obtained a prescription for that purpose and had used it twice on trips. “I found myself marveling at just how clearheaded and comfortable I felt,” she said.

According to Dr. Compton, academics generally use beta blockers for different purposes, such as to counteract the rapid heart beat and hand tremors that some people experience when giving public talks. —Richard Monastersky

Comments

1. Gee, it’s a good thing they didn’t ask how many academics are abusing alcohol.

   — Mark Crane    Apr 10, 10:20 PM    #

2. Make way for the obvious question: is this any better or less odious than what ballplayers do?

   — Abbott Katz    Apr 11, 05:05 AM    #

3. Provigil is for pus—— the real question is what are the numbers of “illicit” polysubstance abuse drugs used by academics?

   — Jen M. Padron    Apr 11, 05:19 AM    #

4. In this career, everything is so high stakes early on. Will you be the grad student who gets the good tenure track job or who is sidelined? Will you be a chosen star from your post-doc or cast off? Will you get tenure at a research school or is it time to find a new line of work?
   Winners and losers are separated early on. So much is determined early based on external assessments of your potential, and once you ratchet up, you can pretty much permanently keep the gain in status.

   The pressure is on to achieve at unrealistic rates. Now that brain enhancers are available, and as long as we have this system, I don’t see how to avoid their use other than with random testing. Or we could try to make the system less a winner-take-all game for new graduates.

   I am too old to have had any opportunity to use enhancers at a time when it would have significantly helped my career, but even in grad school, we joked about whether “brain steroids” would be worth it if they existed. As I recall, everyone’s honest answer wasn’t “No,” it was “it depends how much IQ at what health cost.”

   Houston, we have a problem.

   — Dan Benford    Apr 11, 07:14 AM    #

5. Although I have no experience with chemical brain enhancers, I have plenty of experience with substances and activities that degrade brain performance. Relatively late in life I have figured out that you can improve your brain funtion by applying a few simple techniques:

   1. Throw away the television. Read, play Scrabble or do puzzles instead.

   2. Go to sleep by 9:30 every night.

   3. Stick with a diet based on almonds, apples, blueberries, broccoli, red beans, salmon, spinach, sweet potatoes, and wheat germ, avoiding sugar, fat and excess calories.

   4. Do an hour of exercise every morning, with the objective of being trim and fit.

   5. Get to your office by seven every morning, after going to the gym.

   6. Don’t drink or smoke.

   7. Solve the easiest problems first.

   I guess it’s easier to take a pill and hope it works, huh?

   — Philip J Tramdack    Apr 11, 07:40 AM    #

6. Despite how special we all feel that we are, we’re really no different than anyone else, and are prone to the same weaknesses in similar numbers. A survey asking about alcohol abuse among academics would be interesting, although the numbers might startle some.

   — Phillip Aiai    Apr 11, 08:50 AM    #

7. These are not over-the-counter meds. Who the heck is writing all of these prescriptions? Ritalin for a middle-aged academic? Wow.

   — Tad Graham-Handley    Apr 11, 08:51 AM    #

8. Strange. I’ve found that nothing focuses my mind better than the splendid work of the baroque composers. Drugs? Other than very large amounts of coffee, it never occurred to me. From the sound of it, they are using these more to cheat sleep than improve intelligence and memory. This could work in a crunch, but if someone is counting on these as a permanent routine…?

   — TRB    Apr 11, 09:37 AM    #

9. So, professors who engage in learning for learning’s sake have gone the way of athletes who play the game simply because they love the sport. The competitive world of big time professional academics is just like the world of big time professional sports!

   And we complain that the NCAA has become the farm system for professional football and basketball…

   — FB    Apr 11, 09:54 AM    #

10. This problem is not about professors or athletes; it’s about a society that worships technology (including chemicals), quantifiable results, and that devalues quality of life. Just like everyone else, academics are under tremendous pressure to produce quantifiable results if they expect to have even moderately successful careers. There are no extrinsic rewards for focusing on quality of life, but there are many extrinsic punishments for failing to produce quantifiable results. And without at least a moderately successful career, quality of life, for ourselves and for our children, is difficult to achieve.

    — Jim Good    Apr 11, 10:15 AM    #

11. Apparently, many college students now use ‘study drugs’ like Adderall and Ritalin to help them focus on their schoolwork. So why not continue as the pressures to excel increase as they move on in their careers.

    — PM    Apr 11, 10:20 AM    #

12. Philip, I think it’s great that you offer such sound and thorough advice. I wish I had the willpower to take on your plan. Maybe some day.

    — DLS    Apr 11, 10:24 AM    #

13. In response to the blogger who posed the question, ‘who the heck is writing all these prescriptions?”, one can obtain just about anything via the Internet I believe.

    — GL    Apr 11, 10:36 AM    #

14. The title of this article reads “Many Academics Use Drugs to Enhance Their Brain Power, Survey Suggests.” Let me get this straight. Because 1,400 were surveyed online, and 20% responded that they had at one time or another taken these kinds of drugs, then we are concluding that “many academics use drugs”? I guess 20% of 1,400 is just not my definition of “many.” Plus, this “online survey” sounds quite weak as a methodology. The article actually states that “the survey was not a scientific study.”

    — Lynn H    Apr 11, 10:41 AM    #

15. I’m also somewhat surprised at how quickly the author jumped from “use” to “scientists are not immune to substance abuse” which I consider to be a rather cheap shot. I think the article is filled with unwarranted assumptions, and the Chronicle could have used the space for something of a less sensationalist nature.

    — Lorre Smith    Apr 11, 10:56 AM    #

16. There’s a difference between taking a stimulant and a brain booster. Staying awake longer is not going to result in better cognition, just more cognition. I believe the only known drugs to actually make people think better (in controlled studies of chess players) are caffeine and nicotine, long known, readily available, and ingested widely.

    — the first marci    Apr 11, 11:47 AM    #

17. First of all, the study cannot be generalized to all academics, only those readers of “Nature” who have a tendency to respond to ad hoc surveys. The sample is not a random sample of the “general population;” therefore all comments should be qualified accordingly as “apparently some academics,” and/or “ a minority of respondents,” etc., since a 20% response rate is not even close to even a simple majority for the convenience sample. Conclusion: A few academic scientists who read Nature magazine and tend to respond to ad hoc surveys have used cognitive enhancing drugs at one time or another in their academic careers. Wow.

    — Tom    Apr 11, 12:08 PM    #

18. Let me see. . . “Stick with a diet based on almonds, apples, blueberries, broccoli, red beans, salmon, spinach, sweet potatoes, and wheat germ, avoiding sugar, fat and excess calories.” If I tried this diet, I think I would be crazy. I would rather just load up on coffee – about 12 cups a day sounds about right – and go for it. As for throwing out the TV, not a chance. How else am I really going to learn what’s going on, the web maybe? Like all of the rest of us who are reading and responding here?

    Seriously, academics and many others do engage in stimulants. Where is common sense when we think about all of this? What about our students? We all deal with issues like this every day, if we are on a campus or in a classroom. Welcome to the world.

    I do, however, need another cup of coffe NOW!!! so I can think about all of this stuff.

    — old guy who likes coffee    Apr 11, 01:07 PM    #

19. What ever happened to old-fashioned Absinthe?

    — Old Hand    Apr 11, 01:12 PM    #

20. I freely admit that I’m among those using drugs to help performance. I’m on my third cup (and final) of coffee this AM. I learned long ago that caffeine is my friend.

    — Al    Apr 11, 01:25 PM    #

21. Old Hand,

    I bought and hoarded it ALL. That’s what happened to it.

    — anonymous    Apr 11, 01:29 PM    #

22. Lets see, I have heard this: “Stick with a diet based on almonds, apples, blueberries, broccoli, red beans, salmon, spinach, sweet potatoes, and wheat germ, avoiding sugar, fat and excess calories.”

    And this: “I’m on my third cup (and final) of coffee this AM. I learned long ago that caffeine is my friend.”

    If I ate and drank like that I would not have time to write or research because I would be on the can all day.

    I say, hell, if it works for you and you know the risks, do what you like. The righteous indignation or our hypocritical prohibitionist society is what disturbs me.

    — on the can    Apr 11, 03:36 PM    #

23. The basis for this study was originally an April Fool’s joke, people! Click on the link to the “informal survey” in the first sentence.

    — Lynn H    Apr 14, 10:41 AM    #

24. Wine by the box is a good enhancer (initially). I think it’s an awesome April Fool’s Joke to spark two dozen comments! Thanks, Lynn, for the heads up.

    — Rod    Apr 22, 04:54 PM    #

25. What is not a joke is how many Americans are willing to accept any use of non-majority drugs as abuse. An alcoholic is a drug abuser; someone who uses an illegal amphetamine once a year is a very occasional user.

    — Rich    Apr 22, 08:57 PM    #

26. Boo hoo! Poor academics can’t keep up with the wretched publish or perish industry. Maybe it’s time to reconsider writing esoteric papers that no one really reads, and do something more relevant … like actually TEACHING.

    — Falco    May 5, 05:33 PM    #

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