scholarly journals Professionals’ attitudes towards the use of cognitive enhancers in academic settings

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241968
Author(s):  
Sanyogita (Sanya) Ram ◽  
Bruce Russell ◽  
Carl Kirkpatrick ◽  
Kay Stewart ◽  
Shane Scahill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Prescription Stimulants ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Professional Registration ◽  
Willingness To Use ◽  
Design And Methods

Introduction and aims The non-medical use of prescription stimulants such as methylphenidate, dexamphetamine and modafinil is increasing in popularity within tertiary academic settings. There is a paucity of information on awareness, attitudes, and acceptability by professionals of use in this context. This study aimed to investigate professionals’ knowledge of and attitudes towards the use of cognitive enhancers (CEs) in academic settings, and their willingness to use a hypothetical CE. Design and methods A mail survey was sent to doctors, pharmacists, nurses, accountants and lawyers in New Zealand. These disciplines were chosen as they require professional registration to practice. The questionnaire comprised four sections: (1) demographics, (2) knowledge of CEs, (3) attitudes towards the use of CEs, and (4) willingness to use hypothetical CEs. Results The response rate was 34.5% (414/1200). Overall, participants strongly disagreed that it was fair to allow university students to use CEs for cognitive enhancement (Mdn = 1, IQR: 1,3), or that it is ethical for students without a prescription to use cognitive enhancers for any reason (Mdn = 1, IQR: 1,2). Professions differed in their attitudes towards whether it is ethical for students without a prescription to use CEs for any reason (p = 0.001, H 31.527). Discussion and conclusion Divergent views and lack of clear consensus within professions and between professionals on the use of CEs have the potential to influence both professionals and students as future professionals. These divergent views may stem from differences in the core values of self-identity as well as extrinsic factors of acceptability within the profession in balancing the elements of opportunity, fairness and authenticity in cognitive enhancement. Further research is required to inform the development of policy and guidelines that are congruent with all professions.

Feigning Symptoms to Obtain Prescription Stimulants: A Vignette-Based Study on Its Conditions

2021 ◽  
pp. 002204262110554
Author(s):  
Floris van Veen ◽  
Sebastian Sattler ◽  
Guido Mehlkop ◽  
Fabian Hasselhorn
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Medical Condition ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Prescription Stimulants ◽  
Stimulant Use ◽  
Prescription Drug Use ◽  
Personal Morality ◽  
Prescription Stimulant Use ◽  
Willingness To Use

This vignette-based study examined the willingness to feign symptoms to obtain a prescription following an analysis on who might use prescription stimulants to enhance performance ( N = 3,468). It experimentally manipulated three factors: the social disapproval of prescription stimulant use for enhancement purposes, the physicians’ diagnostic efforts, and the medical condition (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy); respondent characteristics of self-control, personal morality, and self-efficacy were also measured. Our results showed that social disapproval of prescription drug use, a personal morality that disapproves of drug use, high self-control, and high self-efficacy were negatively associated with the willingness to use. Willingness increased especially in situations of social approval when there was a stronger personal approval of drug use, or surprisingly when physicians’ diagnostic efforts were higher. The feigning willingness was lower in situations of social disapproval and when personal morality disapproved of feigning. Thus, personal and situational characteristics are relevant to understand both behaviors.

‘Cognitive enhancers’: A qualitative exploration of university students’ experiences with prescription medicines for academic purposes

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110619
Author(s):  
Fanny Monnet ◽  
Christina Ergler ◽  
Eva Pilot ◽  
Preeti Sushama ◽  
James Green
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Qualitative Work ◽  
Prescription Medicines ◽  
Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

Qualitative work with students who use prescription medicines for academic purposes is limited. Thus, a more nuanced understanding of tertiary students’ experiences is urgently needed. Our study – which draws on five semi-structured interviews with New Zealand university students, complemented with information from local newspapers, blog entries and discussion forums – reveals students’ motivations and perceived effects, their risk perceptions and provides insights into the circumstances enabling the engagement with prescription medicines for academic purposes. Students were influenced by peers and social norms; and ideas about identity, morality and fairness also played a role for engaging with cognitive enhancers. Students used high levels of stress and workload to justify their use but took individual responsibility for their practices. By taking responsibility in this way, rather than considering it as a product of their environment, they buy into the neoliberal university discourse. Unexpectedly, some participants were already receiving medically justified psychopharmacological treatment but extended and supplemented this with nonmedical use. Others considered their use as being for academic emergencies, and that their low level of use helped manage risks. Overall, students viewed pharmacological cognitive enhancement for improving academic performance as cautious, safe, and morally acceptable. We argue in this paper that a local understanding of students’ motivations, justifications and perceptions of pharmacological cognitive enhancement is required, to tailor policies and support systems better to their needs and behaviours.

Activity Patterns and Health Outcomes in Later Life: The Role of Nature of Engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chih Chen ◽  
Michelle Putnam ◽  
Yung Soo Lee ◽  
Nancy Morrow-Howell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Health Benefit ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Activity Participation ◽  
Activity Engagement ◽  
Design And Methods

Abstract Background and Objectives The health benefit of activity participation at older ages is documented in the current literature. Many studies, however, only explored the health benefits of engaging in a few activities and did not examine mechanisms connecting activity participation to health. We investigated the pathway between activity and health by testing the mediation role of the nature of engagement (physical, cognitive, and social) on physical, mental, and cognitive health of older adults. Research Design and Methods We analyzed data of 6,044 older adults from the 2010 and 2012 Health and Retirement Study linked with 2011 Consumption and Activity Mail Survey. We used latent class analysis to identify the patterns of participating in 33 activities as well as patterns of nature of engagement, and examined how these patterns were associated with cognition, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health in later life. Results Meaningful patterns of activity (high, medium, low, passive leisure, and working) and the nature of activity engagement (full, partial, and minimal) were identified. High and working groups, compared to the passive leisure group, showed better health and cognition outcomes. The nature of engagement mediated the relationship between activity patterns and health, especially for older adults who were either full or partially engaged. Discussion and Implications The nature of engagement may play a more important role than the activity itself in relation to health. Identifying the heterogeneity in activity engagement in later life is critical for tailoring interventions and designing programs that can improve the health of older adults.

Non-Medical Use of Prescription Stimulants and Illicit Use of Stimulants for Cognitive Enhancement in Pupils and Students in Germany

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (02) ◽  
pp. 60-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Franke ◽  
C. Bonertz ◽  
M. Christmann ◽  
M. Huss ◽  
A. Fellgiebel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Prescription Stimulants ◽  
Illicit Use

Cognitive enhancement of today may be the normal of tomorrow

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Jotterand
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Mental Impairment ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Clinical Interventions

This chapter considers the use of cognitive enhancers in healthy individuals with cognitive deficits caused by mental impairment. The objectives of this analysis are twofold: (1) to outline some of the problems associated with the attempt to distinguish the concept of enhancement from therapy, and (2) to show the relevance of the distinction between two different categories of cognitive enhancement in the attempt to demonstrate why the notion of human enhancement might become part of the therapeutic language of tomorrow. The various conceptualizations of enhancement found in literature, especially as outlined by Chadwick and Agar, are examined in this chapter and the notion of the clinical ideal to evaluate the concept of enhancement in the context of clinical interventions is introduced. In the final section of the chapter, the implications of the clinical ideal in relation to the use of cognitive enhancers in people with mental impairment are considered.

The Societal Hazards of Neuroenhancement Technologies

2018 ◽  
pp. 163-196
Author(s):  
Nils-Frederic Wagner ◽  
Jeffrey Robinson ◽  
Christine Wiebking
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Transcranial Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Transcranial Stimulation ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Emergent Technologies ◽  
Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

Using cognitive enhancement technology is becoming increasingly popular. In another paper, the authors argued that using pharmacological cognitive enhancers is detrimental to society, through promoting competitiveness over cooperation, by usurping personal and social identifies and thus changing our narrative and moral character. In this chapter, the authors seek to expand that argument by looking at an emerging technology that is rapidly gaining popularity, that of transcranial stimulation (TS). Here the authors explore TS via two major methods, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES). In this, the authors seek to demonstrate that artificial cognitive enhancement is detrimental to society. Furthermore, that the argument can be applied beyond the moral dubiousness of using pharmacological cognitive enhancement, but applied to new, emergent technologies as well. In other words, artificial cognitive enhancement regardless of the technology/medium is detrimental to society.

Age, Education, and Occupation as Correlates of the Meaning of Leisure

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 1105-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmer Spreitzer ◽  
Eldon E. Snyder ◽  
David Larson
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Predictor Variables ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Self Identity

The meaning of leisure is examined in terms of the extent to which leisure activity serves as a source of self-identity. The data are responses to a mail survey of 236 males and 121 females under 65 yr. When age, education, and occupation were predictor variables ( rs −.28 to −.06; Rs .23 to .31), only about 10% of the variance in meanings was accounted for. rs were −.54 and −.41 for men and women between rated job satisfaction and meaning of leisure.

Cognitive enhancement with licit and illicit stimulants in the Netherlands and Finland: what is the evidence?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksi Hupli
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Prescription Stimulants ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stimulant Use ◽  
General Review ◽  
Cross Country

Purpose European studies have shown lower prevalence rates of prescription stimulant use for cognitive enhancement, especially among student populations, compared to North America. This difference requires more cross-country research of the various factors involved. To find out whether other parts of the globe are witnessing similar increases in extra-medical stimulant use, and how this might relate to cognitive enhancement, requires empirical study of local contexts. This paper aims to argue that the academic and public discussion on cognitive enhancement should consider the specific country context of drug policy and research and rethink which drugs are included under the term cognitive enhancement drugs. Design/methodology/approach This paper offers a general review and a sociological country comparison between the Netherlands and Finland, focusing not only on prescription stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but also illicit amphetamines among young adults and methylphenidate use among Dutch and Finnish participants of the Global Drug Survey. This paper emphasises sociocultural perspectives and the importance of context in cognitive enhancement in general as the line between therapeutic and enhancement use can often be blurred. Data is drawn from global, European and national sources, including the International Narcotics Control Board, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Global Drug Survey. Findings There are hardly any national empirical studies done on cognitive enhancement drug use in Finland. On the other hand, there have been studies in the Netherlands showcasing that the use of prescription stimulants and other drugs for enhancement purposes is something that is happening among young people, albeit yet in a relatively small scale. Illicit and licit stimulant use and drug policy action in relation to cognitive enhancement drugs in the two countries varies, emphasising the importance of country context. Originality/value Given that cross-country research is scarce, this general review provides one of the first glimpses into cognitive enhancement drug use by comparing the country context and research in Finland, where the phenomenon has not been studied, with the Netherlands, where the topic has received more research and public attention. Further research areas are suggested.

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