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December 7, 2008
Healthy Adults Should Have Right to Take 'Smart' Pills, Scientists Contend
A year after a commentary in the journal Nature ignited a debate about the use among academics of drugs to enhance their mental energy and ability to work long hours, a group of scientists and ethicists write in the same journal that they believe, in theory, that healthy people should have the right to use “smart” pills.
The authors of the new essay, according to the Associated Press, pose a number of caveats on that statement, including calling for more research about the unknown risks of using the drugs, which are commonly prescribed for sleep disorders or hyperactivity. But the authors assert that “we should welcome new methods of improving our brain function,” and that doing it with pills is no more morally objectionable than eating right or getting a good night’s sleep.
One of the seven authors, Martha J. Farah, who is director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that surveys and informal polls have shown that some professors and students acknowledge using such drugs illegally to help them study or remain alert for long hours. “It’s a felony, but it’s being done,” Ms. Farah told the news service. As more effective brain-boosting pills are developed, she said, demand for them is likely to grow.
While some health experts agreed that the issue deserves attention, Leigh Turner, associate director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, took issue with the essay: “It’s a nice puff piece for selling medications for people who don’t have an illness of any kind,” he told the Associated Press.
The essay, “Towards Responsible Use of Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs by the Healthy,” is available online to Nature subscribers or for purchase. —Charles Huckabee
Posted on Sunday December 7, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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But if you’re not smart yet, you can’t assess the risks of taking such drugs. And if you are already smart enough to know the risks, you don’t need to take the drugs.
— fg Dec 8, 09:15 AM #
LOL and here, here!
— lh Dec 8, 09:45 AM #
Here here, Leigh Turner!
These “scientists” should be ashamed. Drug companies would gladly have a world where everyone needs to buy their products in order to compete in school and in the workforce.
ADHD drugs in the classroom foreshadow this trend. Children who don’t sit motionless, in perfect concentration, have “behavioral problems”. Truth is that most are just regular kids who have not been drugged. The more “normal” it becomes to use these drugs, the more abnormal the rest will appear, until we are all coerced to follow suit.
What a pitiful move by the drug companies and their shills.
— Steve Dec 8, 10:16 AM #
By this logic, it’s perfectly alright for healthy athletes to dope themselves.
— bcowan Dec 8, 10:27 AM #
It should be okay for healthy athletes to dope themselves, yes.
— jhn Dec 8, 10:54 AM #
While I am quite supportive of health sciences research and finding helpful pharmaceuticals, I’m not very happy with what appears to me to be a culture that relies on popping pills to cope with real life, rather than learning how to face and get through life’s challenges.
When precious healthcare dollars are spent on Viagra instead of addressing serious health issues, we are sadly off course. But if we can get a pump-up penis implant, or its chemical equivalent, why should we not get brain implants, or their chemical equivalents?
Of course, we already buy a host of “mind-altering” substances, don’t we? We are just arguing about where the edge of propriety exists, and it is likely not the same for everyone or every circumstance.
So, the question is sort of like what we face with big gas-guzzling SUVs. Is there a market? Is the free market solution to just invent something and give free (or somewhat controlled) access, and if it sells, it survives?
The doping athlete analogy would be fine if we limit our thoughts to some sort of arena of competing ideas, but I’m not sold on the idea that EVERYTHING is about competition. One could make the case that a “smarter” person can be more productive than a less smart person, but, as I think we all know, smarter is not always wiser, and someone who is brilliant at being destructive can destroy the positive contributions of many constructive individuals. What assurance do we have that “smart” pills will be used wisely, or that if they are not invented and used wisely, they will be invented and used maliciously by someone else?
— Joe Erwin Dec 8, 10:55 AM #
Smart drugs? They were already proven ineffective in children and potentially harmful. Check out the benefits of walking. Far exceeds these claims, has no side effects and does not cost a cent. Not enough time in the day? Try a treadmill desk. You can read about them at http://www.trekdesk.com.
Take control of your own health and performance. Get active, your mind will follow.
— Steve B. Dec 8, 11:23 AM #
It’s not easy to draw the line between enhancement and correction. An excellent book addresses this topic and other related ones, “Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream” (W.W. Norton, 2003). It’s written by Carl Elliott, who I believe still works at the same Center for Bioethics as Leigh Turner.
— Q Dec 8, 11:36 AM #
BRAVE NEW WORLD has arrived. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY SOMA.
— formerly known as . . . Dec 8, 12:26 PM #
I’m absolutely in favor of research and clinical trials to identify drugs to aid cognitive performance in the unimpaired. This work should begin just as soon as every disease has been cured and every deficit repaired.
— perplexed Dec 8, 12:40 PM #
I deeply dislike this biassed article. It is presented as an opportunity, rather than a danger..No thanks… we have enough dangers with polluted water, air and bioengeneered food… do you want us to spoil our brains also?
Neuroscience has shown the importance of sleeping and the dangers of chemicals in our brais… I think that the writers were paid to get free guinea pigs…— YIG Dec 8, 02:40 PM #
If no one else takes them, I don’t need to. If anyone else takes them, I may want to, to maintain the competitive balance. If everyone takes them, here’s hoping we have really good leadership to channel all that new productivity into useful work products.
— competitive edge Dec 8, 04:19 PM #
Are they kidding? Go to a mental health facility in a major US city and ask about the damage that is being done to teens and young adults by these drugs. I’ve witnessed this first hand. Have they no regard for others? Shame.
— Outraged Dec 8, 04:43 PM #
Outraged, who needs to go to a mental health facility? Look in our classrooms, or talk to the student affairs staff on your campus…
— HIED doc Dec 8, 06:21 PM #
There’s a very interesting (and short) survey on this topic currently being run by the University of British Columbia:
www.yourviews.ubc.ca/neuroethics
— Michael Lanthier Dec 8, 06:55 PM #
If a drug has minimal side effects when used correctly, I’m all for using it for any reason you want. Mental enhancement. Physical enhancement. Recreation. Whatever. Opposition to drug use is our last vestige of Puritanism.
— Bio Prof Dec 8, 08:20 PM #
Sorry, but I am one of those people who actually needs these drugs to function normally, due to an unfortunate combination of injury and DNA. I’m sick of hearing ill-informed opinions —from academics!—about how these medications endow people with either special powers and privileges that others (i.e., them) don’t get, or addiction and insanity that negates our rational claim to equal educational and vocational access.
I really resent the the flagrant misuse and abuse of controlled substances by people who think they need to stay up all night to make up for poor time management skills. What goes unsaid and unconsidered are all the other compensatory skills we have to learn in addition to taking medications just to do what most people take for granted.
— Need, not Want Dec 10, 09:07 AM #
As an artist and fan of science, I agree Puritanism is a nagging stain on our national cloth. However, I see a difference between defending drug use for personal liberty and defending it for the possibility of professional gain. I realize my slippery slope here, this being a nation of opportunism. But capitalism’s always had a turbulent relationship with morality. I mean, if you’re going to defend responsible drug use for personal reasons, I think you have to go whole-hog and include marijuana. The academy isn’t the only place in society where smart people work.
— madame ojo Dec 11, 11:33 AM #
The risible anti-smart drug comments posted here offer inadvertent proof of precisely why such drugs would be valuable.
— Rob T. Dec 11, 08:00 PM #