before a big exam
I chuckled to myself as I sat down to write this Part III of “mind drugs”, because I just read an article in today’s online New York Times about how caffeinated coffee—conclusively shown to be a performance enhancer in many sports—is the only supplement that truly enhances athletic performance that is not banned by anti-doping regulations. Caffeine is a mind drug as well as a body drug, but somehow—probably because it is ubiquitous, accepted everywhere—it would be too hard to regulate out of sports competitions, yet those who use it have a clear edge over those who do not.
In the post two days ago I addressed some safety concerns regarding mind drugs (known otherwise as “cognitive enhancers”), including the risk of addiction. Beyond safety issues, others object to cognitive enhancers because they are not “natural” for the brain, and further, that use is not moral as they give some people an unfair advantage.
The first issue regarding “natural” I don’t believe has credence. Much of what is done today in medicine—to people and by people—is not “natural”, and the pace of what is acceptable yet unnatural seems to be accelerating. I suspect only the most religiously orthodox today would protest contraceptive pills or condoms (not natural), though I know many who might be squeamish about Viagra or breast implants as unnatural, but they might well accept kidney transplants or in vitro fertilization; certainly far from natural. I think it’s very difficult to condemn anything in medicine today as unnatural.
The issue regarding morality and cognitive enhancers is a thornier topic, but it seems that over time, more mainstream scientists and doctors are saying yes, it’s fine for otherwise normal people to take a prescription drug that enhances one’s brain function temporarily by helping them think more clearly and delaying their need for sleep.
The moral question brings us back to coffee. Caffeine enhances calcium release from muscles, which allows those athletes who take it before competition (in pill form or as coffee) to run faster and longer—and as it also acts on the brain—with less sense of fatigue. Those who use it get at least a five percent performance boost over non-users.
Cognitive enhancers such as modafinal (Provigil), our model drug for this mini-series, likely improves the test-taking performance of those who take it before, say, a college-entrance exam, or a police qualification test (consider the comment from last post). There is no way to blood-test and know who took it versus those who did not. Is this mental-doping moral? Certainly it is less of an issue if everyone has equal chance to take an enhancer beforehand, but many would choose not to for a number of reasons: moral or fear of short term side effects or addiction or the possibility of long term brain damage. Modern medicine and advanced pharmaceuticals are presenting us ever more with these dilemmas, running faster than our answers.
Next….Indecisive Medical “Experts”, Dr. Oz, And Real Age®
