Word: modafinil
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ever there was a safe recreational drug, modafinil seemed to be it. The greatest little pick-me-up since the cup of joe - or so its enthusiasts said - the antinarcolepsy medication has helped recreational and casual users stay peppy without the benefit of sleep. As for addiction? Not to worry. The drugs that hook you most powerfully do their work by mucking about with the pleasure-inducing brain chemical dopamine, but modafinil doesn't go there. "Modafinil," as Slate magazine claimed in a 2003 posting on the drug, "tiptoes around dopamine...
Welcome to the brave new world of "cognitive enhancement," a term that typically refers to the use of attention- or memory-boosting prescription drugs, such as Adderall, Ritalin and modafinil (Provigil), along with other performance-raising medications, to improve productivity. College kids have been doing it for years. About 7% of U.S. university students report having taken stimulants "nonmedically" at least once, according to a 2005 study of nearly 11,000 students. On some campuses - primarily private, élite schools - a full quarter of students admit to nonmedical drug use in the past year, mainly in an attempt to improve...
Smart drugs are used widely off-campus as well: fighter pilots take stimulants to enhance alertness and cognition on critical missions; in the civilian world, executives take beta-blockers to calm nerves, while some time-pressed writers use wakefulness drugs, like modafinil, to meet deadlines. It's become commonplace enough that a group of seven leading bioethicists and neuroscientists published an editorial in the science journal Nature last month advocating the use of performance-boosting drugs. "Cognitive enhancement has much to offer individuals and society," the authors wrote, "and a proper societal response will involve making enhancements available while managing...
Another trial in Australia followed 30 cocaine injectors, 16 of whom were treated with dexamphetamine and 14 with a placebo. Cocaine-positive urine tests in the dexamphetamine group fell from 94% to 56%, while the placebo group showed no change after 14 weeks. A similar study of modafinil at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 found reduced cocaine use in addicts...
...newer stimulant drug, modafinil, does not carry the same addiction risk as amphetamines, making it a promising alternative as a maintenance drug. But it's also less effective in treating the most severe addictions, according to Grabowski. "In our research, we were able to separate out [the more and less severely addicted patients], and the more severe people were more responsive to the more potent stimulants," says Grabowski, who has conducted two randomized controlled trials involving nearly 200 patients, which found that dexamphetamine treatment reduced cocaine use better than a placebo...