Tests Get Me Nervous: A Case of Pharmacological Enhancement

Abstract

IntroductionThe use of drugs to improve cognitive performance (pharmacological enhancement) is a practice that increases in frequency, especially in individuals with a high degree of academic education, university students, and workforce with high responsibilities. Legal substances such as alcohol and caffeine, prescription drugs such as modafinil or methylphenidate and some illegal drugs such as amphetamines or cannabis are utilized to improve cognitive performance, maintain wakefulness, or induce sleep. Perception of risk is low in many cases. Internet has facilitated the illicit access to prescription drugs with astonishing ease.Objective and methodsWe want to exemplify through a clinical case, how the access to some of these substances through internet is very easy, and how, in this case, the use of Modafinil (drug indicated for narcolepsy) with the objective of maintaining academic performance aggravates symptoms of anxiety in a 22-year universitary patient.ResultsExposition of clinical case in the poster.ConclusionsThe use of substances (“smart drugs”) presents risks for both physical and psychological health that sometimes are not perceived by the user. It is surprising that a highly educated individual has taken Modafinil without researching for a deep understanding of the side effects of the drug.Internet access of regulated substances that should only be prescribed by a physician to be used on very concrete symptoms is extremely easy. In the case of the Modafinil, it is possible to access its purchase by simply searching the words “purchase/buy Modafinil” in any internet browser.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Working smart: the use of ‘cognitive enhancers’ by UK university students

“…These findings suggest that there are potentially three and half times as many future users than current users. Furthermore, students can procure cognitive enhancers with considerable ease from international manufacturers over the Internet (Rodriguez et al 2016).…”