Posted on 12/20/2004 4:45:02 PM PST by shrinkermd
It would be hard to imagine improving on the intelligence of computer engineer Bjoern Stenger, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University. Yet for several hours, a pill seemed to make him even brainier.
Participating in a research project, Stenger downed a green gelatin cap containing a drug called modafinil. Within an hour, his attention sharpened. So did his memory. He aced a series of mental-agility tests. If his brainpower would normally rate a 10, the drug raised it to 15, he said.
"I was quite focused," said Stenger. "It was also kind of fun."
The age of smart drugs is dawning. Modafinil is just one in an array of brain-boosting medications — some already on pharmacy shelves and others in development — that promise an era of sharper thinking through chemistry.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
If it keeps me from walking into a room and wondering why I did, it might be worth a try!
Saletu B; Frey R; Krupka M; Anderer P; Grunberger J; Barbanoj M J Department of Psychiatry, University of Vienna, Austria
International journal of clinical pharmacology research (1989), 9(3), 183-95.
Abstract
Modafinil (CRL 40476) is a recently developed central alpha adrenergic agonist with vigilance-promoting properties. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled sleep laboratory study, its single-dose effects on objectively and subjectively evaluated sleep, morning awakening, and early morning behaviour were investigated and compared with amphetamine. Ten young healthy volunteers of both sexes spent 12 nights in the sleep laboratory: one adaptation night, one baseline night, five drug nights (100 mg and 200 mg modafinil; 10 mg and 20 mg d-amphetamine; placebo) and five subsequent washout nights. The drugs were administered in one week intervals according to a Latin square design.
Somnopolygraphic investigations were performed between 22h30 and 06h00. Subjects received the drug orally half an hour before bedtime. A self-rating scale for sleep and awakening quality and early morning behavior was completed subsequent to the morning toilet. Thereafter, noopsychic and thymopsychic variables were evaluated utilizing a psychometric test-battery. Statistical analyses of objective sleep variables demonstrated that modafinil causes no significant changes as compared to a placebo. Sleep initiation remained unchanged after all of the drugs, while sleep maintenance was impaired dose-dependently after d-amphetamine.
Thus, total sleep time and sleep efficiency decreased significantly after 20 mg d-amphetamine as compared to the placebo and modafinil. In regard to sleep architecture a reduction of sleep stage 2 and rapid eye movement-sleep occurred under d-amphetamine while modafinil did not exhibit such an effect. Subjective sleep quality was significantly better after modafinil than after the reference compound. Subjective awakening quality and well-being in the morning did not show any significant findings.
Furthermore, no differences were observed between the placebo and the other drugs concerning objective awakening quality (evaluated by psychometric tests). Critical flicker frequency increased significantly after 20 mg d-amphetamine as compared to the placebo. Pulse rate and evening and morning blood pressure remained unchanged. These data stress the necessity to differentiate between "vigility-increasing" properties of amphetamine and "vigilance-promoting" properties of modafinil.
8^)
The key here... and it's applicable to the whole ridiculous "sports doping" controversy as well... is that such drugs are somehow "cheating".
Is it cheating for one kid to have a better diet and home life than another? Is that reason to give the poor kid some sort of handicap? Of course not! Neither should we penalize those people who are able to further enhance their abilities with effective mentally-enhancing drugs (no, I'm NOT including LSD and cocaine in that category; but there's nothing wrong with using medicines to be "better than well"?
Everyone should have the freedom to enhance their abilities, physical and mental, as far as they possibly can. Just because some luddites arbitrarily decide that some enhancements are good, and some are bad, is no reason to turn our back on the fruits of technological progress.
I don't see how I could get any smarter.
=====
Close your eyes and try again !!! ;-))
"Everything you think, do and sayyyyy.
Is in the pill you took today.
In the year 2525...."
"Oh that? I forget. It's some government thing."
Yup...Beer makes you smarter...Afterall, it made Bud wieser...
In theory, I agree with you. The problem comes when something like the drug described here turns out to cause serious problems that may not surface until many years or even decades after they're used. Despite the long-range effects, short-term competitive pressures could force many people to use them. E.g. if many of the biotech researchers are using them to keep tons of complex information in their heads, then what chance would non-users have of remaining competitive? People could end up having to choose to between being relegated to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, or taking drugs that would say cause a 50% chance of getting a deadly cancer by age 50. This could get really scary.
This is already happening on a small scale with caffeine and Ritalin use. So many people are using these substances, even if they have no real problem -- just a normal attention level and a normal need for sleep -- that it's hard for people who sleep 8 hours a night and don't use caffeine to survive in our competitive economy. Lack of sleep and heavy caffeine use definitely have adverse effects on long-term health, but if you ask most people why they don't just sleep more and skip the caffeine, they say they just can't -- have to hold down the job, have to be at the job at a certain time in the morning and can't leave 'til all the work is done,e tc. And if they don't keep up, their employer will replace them with someone who IS willing to load up on caffeine and get by on 6 hours sleep.
As far as the idiot athletes on steroids are concerned, I couldn't care less. Sports don't matter one iota, and it doesn't matter if these guys choose to give themselves cancer or whatever in pursuit of sports glory, and it doesn't matter if pro and college and Olympic sports are "tainted" because they don't matter anyway. But when mental functions essential to economic activity are subject to enhancement by dangerous drugs, big problems will result.
Is that you Dave?
http://www.provigil.com/
This drug "Provigil" (tradename for modafinil) got some good press on
"The Conway and Steckler" talk-show here in Los Angeles a couple of months ago.
A number of callers (obstenively being treated for narcolepsy) sang it's praises.
You want to be careful with some beer though. Can you imagine going to San Francisco and drinking Heinie Kin?
No, I have your car keys, and most of your right socks, in case you were wondering.
I don't want to register at the LA Times. Could you give us a list of chemicals they are writing about?
Meanwhile, I checked my online supplier of strange and wonderful nutritional supplements for their list of brain supplements. http://www.beyond-a-century.com
Here's their list. What do you think?
"Brain/Nerve Function— ALCAR, theanine, GABA, octacosanol, glutamine, pyroglutamic acid, taurine, 5-HTP, choline products, CoQ10, idebenone, pine bark/grape seed, rhodiola, rosemary, inosine, lithium, pregnenolone, DHA, ginkgo, SAMe, NADH, NAD, boron, B12 methylcobalamin, creatine."
I take a few of these, most for other reasons: GABA, CoQ10, grape seed, pregnenolone, ginko, and boron. I'm a walking chemistry set, but it works for me. I don't need any prescriptions whatsoever and when I do they work extremely quickly. Because I'm a "high responder" to drugs, I have much more fear of prescription drugs than of any exotic nutritional.
Great.
Now all they have to do is create a mixture of Viagra and this new brain drug, and with a little plastic surgery, I'll be able to score every chick in the bar this Saturday night.
(Psyche!)
"I did LSD many years ago. Many times. It did focus me on a number of things."
Years ago me too! I focused on the inner thread workings of the living room curtains (which seemed to be moving in waves) for about 7 hours.
LOL!!!
I know what you mean...The Doc tells me to take some Zinc pills...Will improve my memory...
But I can't remember to take the pills...
They need a whole truckload of it over at the DU.
Maybe like Prozac causing a near catastrophic drop in seratonin when the user stops taking it.
Imagine running out of this modafinil stuff after taking it for a while, and are found dazed and drooling a few hours later, transfixed by your shiny car keys.
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