Review of ‘smart drug’ shows modafinil does enhance cognition
The drug modafinil was developed to treat narcolepsy (excessive sleeping), but it is widely used off-licence as a ‘smart drug’ to promote cognitive enhancement, where qualities such as alertness and concentration are desired to assist someone with, for example, exam preparation.
Now, a new systematic review, published online in the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology
shows that modafinil does indeed confer significant cognitive benefits in this group, at least on a particular subset of tasks.
Dr Ruairidh Battleday and Dr Anna-Katharine Brem from the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School evaluated all research papers on cognitive enhancement with modafinil from January 1990 to December 2014. They found 24 studies dealing with different benefits associated with taking modafinil, including planning and decision making, flexibility, learning and memory, and creativity.
Dr. Ruairidh Battleday said:
In contrast, more recent studies have, in general, used more complex tests: when these are used, it appears that modafinil more reliably enhances cognition: in particular 'higher' brain functions that rely on contribution from multiple simple cognitive processes.'
Professor Guy Goodwin, President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) commented:
'This overview suggests that, on current evidence, modafinil enhances cognition independent of its known effects in sleep disordered populations.
Thus, the authors say that 'modafinil may well deserve the title of the first well-validated pharmaceutical nootropic agent'. In other words, it's the first real example of a 'smart drug', which can genuinely help, for example, with exam preparation.
Previous ethical discussion of such agents has tended to assume extravagant effects before it was clear that there were any. If correct, the present update means the ethical debate is real: how should we classify, condone or condemn a drug that improves human performance in the absence of pre-existing cognitive impairment?
'As the authors point out, modafinil is not licensed for this use, and it will not be because it would be outside the current terms of reference of regulatory bodies.
The non-medical use of mind altering drugs has hitherto broadly conflicted with the work ethic of many societies, has been very popular but leads to a range of demonstrable harms.
Regulation has been and remains problematic. We cannot know either if demand for modafinil in the same societies will actually be significant, whether society will be more accepting and how regulation will then be framed.'
Modafinil for cognitive neuroenhancement in healthy non-sleep-deprived subjects: a systematic review is published in European Neuropsychopharmacology doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.07.028
Source:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-08-20-review-%E2%80%98smart-drug%E2%80%99-shows-modafinil-does-enhance-cognition
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