Comments on: Popping Pills a Popular Way to Boost Brain Power
Add a Comment
- This is cheating -- no doubt about that. I was absolutely appalled and extremely disappointed after watching the show for the following reasons:
Katie Currie never raised a question as to whether it is fair to other students who are not using these performance enhancing drugs, or not.
Some of these students are likely future law makers and Olympics dope testing officials to be -- how can they justify that it is okay to use performance enhancing drugs to outperform peers in school, but it is not acceptable in sports. This is a pure case of double-standard -- one for the rich, the other for the poor.
CBS must apologize to the general public for the shabbily job done. - Reply to this comment
- Kids are taking drugs to do well in school, It could be worse. This story didnt say kids take adderall then they committ crimes or get violent. The story said kids take this and do better in school. Really, what's the problem here. I took adderall in college and I take it now. It has definetely made me more successful. I also take a vitmain every morning and I take medicine when i'm sick to make me healthy. Should i apologize that taking it with a prescription has helped me be successful and do better than others, or should others stop being so uptight about it and begin to take these medications to improve their situation?
- Reply to this comment
- Amphetamines don't make you smarter, rather the opposite. All these drugs do is allow someone to stay awake for days. The toll on health is enormous.
This country is coming unglued with losers and cheaters in every walk of life. I am aghast at our lack of common sense and values. - Reply to this comment
- by GRgrandma April 26, 2010 2:12 PM EDT
AND while it seems to help them concentrate to pass exams, etc do they retain what they've learned for the rest of their lives?
Exactly. I can see taking medications IF they do indeed have a problem, but if they don't have a problem, what is that doing? And like you said, are they going to retain the information?
"If I'm not on Adderall I'll read something and I'm not really interested at all, you're just trying to keep yourself focused, but then, you take an Adderall and you all of the sudden are just totally consumed in what you're doing," she explained.
If you aren't interested in something, and you have to take pills to get you interested, what's the point? How much are you going to remember if it holds no interest for you? Maybe you should find something more interesting so you don't need to take pills.
Maybe this is why there is so much incompetence. They forced themselves to become doctors, lawyers....whatever, and now can't remember how to do their jobs! Either that or they have to continue taking the drugs to do the job, which is also contributing to the incompetence. - Reply to this comment
- Where would I be now if I were given the opportunity to enhance my learning ability with pills? Maybe not waiting to see if I can get disability, at 55 years of age, after working at dead end jobs all my life. I have wanted SO badly to learn, and to retain information. I would be pretty smart if I could remember, if it would just "sink in". I love knowledge. I read about everything that interests me. The information escapes me whenever I try to access it, to relate it to someone. I am so tired of being stupid. But at this age, my opportunities are pretty much over.
After I lost my latest job I did go to a doctor, was diagnosed with Adult ADD, and given a prescription for Vyvanse, which did not seem to help. I tried to get the doctor to give me Adderall because I had read some very positive things about it. He wouldn't. I gave up. Why bother?
When I couldn't deny or hide my stupidity anymore (oh, how I've tried!)after being called "as dumb as a rock", the realization that what I have been dealing with all these years has a name, and that there is a medication that could have HELPED ME, I was devastated. It felt like someone had slammed me against a wall. I have beat myself up for so long, what did I do? Why was I so much dumber than everyone else? In a AHDH forum, I read a 23 year old complaining because so much of his life was wasted before he was diagnosed.
I know my life isn't over, is it worth it to try to fix it now? Is there really help? - Reply to this comment
- While I appreciate the importance of the news segment, I found the similarities between this news story and an article I wrote on this very topic over 5 years ago slightly disturbing.
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/ohe/library/drugs/adderall.htm
Considering it is the second article that comes up when you google "college AND adderall" I find it odd that none of the fact checkers found this. - Reply to this comment
- ok, I went to college in the 80's we did no doze and coffee, I grew up and got into a bad situation and used meth, it kept me focused and organized- and I could get all my stuff done, then realized how bad that is, and gosh- I could get addicted. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, the rhumatologist said, well meth will allow you to be active for a longer period during the day, everyone did amphetamines in med school( I am guessing the 70's for him)but the ups and downs take an emotional toll. Adhd is a difficult diagnosis, and yes, we all have ADHD moments from time to time, but it is a valid diagnosis- I am a mother struggling with a child who has it- he has an authoritarian dad and step dad- there is a WHOLE gambit of things invoved with ADHD that most people don't realize- attitude impulse control, hyperness, memory, anyway, I take concerta as opposed to Adderal, it does help me focus and I am on time for work and get my job done- and my house is more organized than it has been in years. Do I suggest to take it illegally- no, but I am saying it is something that people(students in particular) And truck drivers, etc, have done for decades- and noone used to think much about it.
- Reply to this comment
- I'LL STICK TO COFFEE, THANKS.....
As a Graduate student at a distinguished university pursuing my PhD in Neuroscience, I found the suggestion of "cosmetic neurology" completely irresponsible and naive.
First, we are talking about drugs that fall into the same class of drugs as cocaine, meth, cathione, etc. They are not safe and have a very high potential for abuse. Suggesting that the general population should be using these drugs to enhance their brain power??? That's completely delusional.
Sure, pop a pill and study all night....pop another few and you'll be sitting in your exam chair writing your name over and over again. Let me know how that goes for you.
Never in the story did they address the issue of sensitization or the development of tolerance. Unless I missed something.... These drugs are altering crucial systems in your brain. They alter not just Dopamine but Serotonin as well. Overloading your brain can result in psychotic reactions, and stereotypy. - Reply to this comment
- College campuses have long been hotbeds of performance enhancing drugs called "coffee" and "tea" and "chocolate," all of which contain psychoactive drugs, including caffeine, theanine, and various other alkaloids. What kind of hypocrisy allows these substances but not others? History shows that it is a basic human drive to improve ourselves, including with pharmeceuticals.
In addition, shame on you "60 Minutes" for associating adderall and other amphetamines as "smart drugs." They're not. They're stimulants more related to cocaine than to actual smart drugs, which have their own Latin name, "nootropics." Smart drugs are best described in "Smart Drugs and Nutrients II" by Steve Fowkes, who happens to be an advisor to the 17 year old non-profit health education group I lead, called Smart Life Forum.
The actual smart drugs are far safer than speed. They are mostly ignored in the US even though they are pharmaceuticals. Leading examples would be piracetam, hydergine, and selegeline. Provigil, or Modafinil, is sometimes considered a smart drug too - it's not technically a stimulant but it sometimes can act like one by sensitizing hypothalmic function. These drugs are non-addictive with the exception of Provigil, which is not a high risk addiction drug either. Most of these drugs are neuroprotective - they actually save brain cells from oxidative stress, especially in low oxygen conditions.
I have personally used "real" smart drugs daily for more than 10 years to enhance my performance, including while I earned my Wharton MBA while working full time at a startup. Its use is common in executives in Silicon Valley too. I wouldn't skip my smart drugs any more than I would skip my vitamin and mineral supplements. (then again, I run www.smartlifeforum.org ...)
The fact that there is any debate about smart drugs at all is a sad example of how the war on drugs has painted normal human behaviors as illegal and dangerous.
As far as the debate about whether smart drugs mean other people will have to start taking the drugs to "keep up" with those of us neurologically enhanced humans, it's a moot point. A good diet with plenty of healthy fat, exercise, breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation are all brain boosters that give an "unfair" advantage to those of us who care to use them. Using the bizarre and dangerous calculos of those who'd rather sit on the couch to watch 60 Minutes than meditate, we ought to run a segment about how it's unfair that college students who exercise or meditate are doing better in class than those who don't.
I'm working on a book about performance enhancement techniques - pharmaceutical and otherwise - for busy executives who want the energy and focus to have busy careers and then come home to spend quality time with their families. Smart drugs have always been, and will continue to be an inevitible part of being human. - Reply to this comment
- Dear Mrs. Couric and CBS News:
I watched 60 Minutes on Sunday Evening 4-25-2010.
I watched the segment on 'Boosting Brain Power' and people taking 'Adderal, Ritalin and Provigil' pharmaceuticals.
Three Million years ago I was a undergraduate at Xavier University in Cincinnati. (1968 to 1972) One of the Baby Boomers. Also graduated on time. Pre-Med and did not get in. For my senior thesis and project I worked with a 'memory and learning enhancer' by the name of 'Ribamol'. I obtained the 'Ribamol' sample with the help and approval of my instructor, through proper channels, from the City or Industry, California. I got some mice and made a maze out of 1/4 inch plywood. The control group were the mice that had not been fed 'Ribamol'. The experimental and test group were the mice that were fed small doses of 'Ribamol.' I tested whether the test group of mice would learn to run the maze quicker and better than the control group of mice. From my small observations, it appeared that the test group of mice, that is the group that were fed 'Ribamol', ran the maze quicker than the control, of 'unfed' group of mice.
I have not read anything recently of the progress or outcome of the pharmaceutical 'Ribamol'.
DISCLAIMER: I do not now nor have ever taken any unprescribed drug or pharmaceutical. John M. Koniecny 4-26-2010
I recently met a person who tried to join the Marines and was immediately and on the spot, summarily dismissed and turned down because he stated he had used 'Ritalin' in his lifetime. The use of 'Ritalin' was the reason.
Thank you
John Konieczny jmk1950@aol.com - Reply to this comment
