Cognitive enhancement drug may also cause addiction

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090317/full/news.2009.170.html

by robg • 17 years ago

15 25 17 years ago

icey2• 17 years ago

Out of curiosity, are there any legal stimulants that are non-addictive and generally low risk to risk free?

I quit smoking a couple of years ago, and my brain never fully recovered from quitting. I've felt mentally slower ever since I quit.

I've occasionally taken Modafinil, and whenever I've taken it, my brain resumes back to my smoking baseline. I don't feel amped up on it at all, just normal.

swombat3• 17 years ago

I don't think there are any central nervous system stimulants which don't have the potential for addiction, legal or not...

rms4• 17 years ago

A lot of people on here probably meet the criteria for ADHD. Methylphenidate is addictive to a certain extent, but not as much as caffeine and is basically risk free when taken as prescribed. I agree with the other poster, I don't think there are any stimulants that are tolerance free.

arockwell• 17 years ago

Strattera has the same concentration improving effects of stimulants and is not habit forming.

rms4• 17 years ago

Strattera is not a stimulant, it is an NRI, a class of drugs that are mostly anti depressants. In a statistical sense, it does not treat ADHD nearly as well as methylphenidate or amphetamine.

chris11• 17 years ago

I was slightly curious too, and so did some searching. Surprisingly stimulants can actually decrease risk of addiction to drugs or alcohol. It was found that adults who were prescribed medication for ADHD were at less risk for substance abuse. Now I don't no whether it just reduced risk for addictions to things other than stimulants, or that it just reduced addiction in people who had ADHD, but it at least shows that there is a medically safe dose for some people.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol14N4/ADHD.html

extension2• 17 years ago

Treating a mental disorder/personality quirk that is fucking up your life will reduce your risk for substance abuse, not to mention loose women and rock and roll.

It also helps if the drug you're being treated with has a lot of the same effects, or is in fact the same substance, as the drugs you would otherwise abuse.

katz2• 17 years ago

If you are talking about cognitive enhancement there are a few (not all are technically “stimulants”). Firstly, things rich in Omega 3 has shown to improve your memory (e.g. flaxseed oil). Ginkgo Bilbao has shown to work in some studies.

Then there is things such as Piracetam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracetam) that has shown to improve memory.

icey2• 17 years ago

It's more a concentration issue than it is general memory and cognition.

I've tried piracetam and aniracetam, and neither of them really did much for me. I actually had better luck with gingko biloba.

Personally, it's not a huge issue; it just frustrates me that I know I'm not operating at peak capacity.

Still, if I know I'm going to have a day where I need to be able to keep a lot of various fiddly bits in my head while I work through a particularly rough patch of logic; every little bit helps.

swombat3• 17 years ago

How is this news? Even modafinil.com and Wikipedia already list Dopamine effects from modafinil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil

http://modafinil.com

Worth noting, too, that "may cause addiction" does not equal "causes addiction".

robg• 17 years ago

Nice catch. It's the first imaging study to show the effect, I guess. I think this is one of the reasons for its popularity. It not only makes some folks alert. It makes them happy and alert. That's the holy combination. Caffeine doesn't quite get there and how big is that market? When we look back in fifty years at the development of custom (and cosmetic) psychotropics, I bet modafinil leads the story.

speek• 17 years ago

Don't screw around with your brain unless you're willing to accept the consequences for something bad happening to it.

extension2• 17 years ago

Irrespective of observable physiological effects, any drug, or indeed anything that improves our quality of life is addictive. Addiction is part of the human condition and we're better off just accepting it and letting ourselves get hooked on things, subject to our own rationally chosen limits. Those choices should be based on the strength of the addiction and the benefits and risks of the addictive object. The chemical/psychological distinction is hardly important.

katz2• 17 years ago

> drug, or indeed anything that improves our quality of life is addictive.

There is a difference between using something (and getting used to it because it increases your quality of life) and a chemical addiction.

> The chemical/psychological distinction is hardly important.

There is a huge difference. If you are addicted to something it is pretty much a physiological effect on you.

Andys• 17 years ago

I agree up to a point, but we know that psychological events cause physiological changes, not just vice-versa.

Simple example, the addiction of the adrenaline rush and dopamine release of extreme sports.

a-priori• 17 years ago

Often when people, and especially the media, say "addiction" they're actually referring to psychological dependence.

Most physiological addictions have a psychological component. As an example, I'm addicted to caffeine, but I'm also dependent on coffee as part of a morning routine. Smokers who are addicted to nicotine are often also dependent on the social aspects of being a smoker. It's often the psychological component that, long term, is the hardest to break.

The converse, however, is not true. A good example is so-called "Internet addiction" which should rightfully be called "Internet dependence", at best, because it has no physiological component.

netcan2• 17 years ago

I've been waiting for a reason to go back to smoking

sketerpot• 17 years ago

If your only reason for quitting smoking was because you dislike the concept of addiction, then I suspect you were never a smoker in the first place and are making this up.

Smoking is expensive, unhealthy, inconvenient, and stinky. That's why there's a big push to get people unaddicted to smoking, but not so much push to get people unaddicted from caffeine.

xiaoma• 17 years ago

>"The chemical/psychological distinction is hardly important."

Yes, it is. In some cases, withdrawal can cause death.

Cognitive enhancement drug may also cause addiction

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