
Use of drugs by people seeking to boost mental performance is rising worldwide - dvcrn
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05599-8
======
mirimir
> Results: Modafinil improved performance on tests of higher cognitive
> function; participants in the modafinil group worked more efficiently when
> solving working memory ... and planning ... problems, were less-impulsive
> decision makers ... , and were more able to flexibly redirect their
> attention ... . In contrast, no improvement was seen in tests of clinical
> psychomotor performance.

> Conclusions: Our results suggest that fatigued doctors might benefit from
> pharmacological enhancement in situations that require efficient information
> processing, flexible thinking, and decision making under time pressure.
> However, no improvement is likely to be seen in the performance of basic
> procedural tasks.

Sugden et al. (2012) Effect of Pharmacological Enhancement on the Cognitive
and Clinical Psychomotor Performance of Sleep-Deprived Doctors. Ann Surg
255:222–227.

[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8010/d889309016b93901fd0045...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8010/d889309016b93901fd00459662bd35eba26d.pdf)

~~~
repsak
Without reading the paper this seems somewhat similar to my experience with
modafinil. When fatigued or sleep deprived it can bring me back baseline but
not much more.

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ssijak
Best mind boosters :

1\. Never, ever, sacrifice good sleep.

2\. Eat well, or at least don`t eat junk and too many carbs throughout the day
(will get sleepy at least)

3\. Exercise in moderation. Bonus points for working after exercise while the
mind is boosted with happy chemicals.

4\. Reduce stress, cognitive load with dumb stuff (news, gossip, things we can
not influence) and give less *ucks in general about random things in life.

~~~
mjevans
These are the things that civic support should encourage by making market
supply abundant.

Re 1: Actual building codes that isolate the noise of neighbors (even in
minimum code apartments).

Re 2: Figure out some incentive (not punishment) that makes the actually
healthy foods more cost effective than the fast / junk foods.

Re 3: Encourage walkable + transit urban design and over-supply urban areas to
keep the rents slightly less expensive than even middle of nowhere costs.

Re 4: Sorry, evolving the species is going to take more time, we can only keep
pushing.

~~~
RugnirViking
#2 is alowly getting there where I'm living in denmark. Not sure if it's a
funtion entirely of the regulatory environment but perhaps also luck of
geography but the cheapest things (vegetables, pasta, rice) mean that for the
price of a chocolate bar you can make several healthy meals.

For the most part, people do cook these basic foods, usually with some meat
thrown in where they can (The crowd I associate with aren't the wealthiest)

#3 I experienced this a lot growning up in a city that was deliberately
designed like this and built up from farmland in the 70s in the UK. I feel
like the design has been so successful (popping up an entire city from nothing
in 50 years) that other countries should really consider also investing in
creating new properly designed cities as a response to the idea 'the big
cities were designed badly when first built and now we're stuck with them'

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throwawayqdhd
When I was slightly younger (I'm 29 right now), I must have tried most
nootropics imaginable, including microdosing LSD (slightly pleasant) and
modafinil (worthless). I was looking for that "magic bullet" that would make
me more focused and productive.

Nothing really worked.

What _did_ work was waking up early and working out regularly. I sleep by 11
and wake up by 6. I get at least two hours of work in before hitting the gym
for 45-60 minutes.

I manage to get far, far more work done than any Nootropic I ever tried.

~~~
xor1
I tried lots of nootropics as a young adult too, with no effect as well.

Coffee doesn't help me focus by itself, quite the opposite actually. I wish it
did because I LOVE coffee. I don't know what's wrong with me, since plenty of
other people I know can use it to focus, while I just end up feeling inpatient
and restless.

I got my first prescription for adderall in 2013. I was started at 30 mg XR
and 20 IR, which is kind of ridiculous. I'm still amazed that this is
considered a low-average dosage for lots of Americans. I took those a few
times only, dumped my pills, then over the next few months worked my way down
to 10 XR/5 IR, which I've been at ever since.

I know I'm reducing my lifespan by using them, but it's a deal with the devil
that's ultimately worth it for me. I'll take ~5 less years of living as a
geriatric in exchange for being able to better provide for a family.

~~~
repsak
Caffeine + l-theanine is the way to go if you feel "inpatient and restless" on
coffee alone!

You could start with an even split then adjust the ratio depending on how you
feel.

~~~
xor1
I've never tried l-theanine at all, so I'll try this. Thanks!

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hobls
> US respondents reported the highest rate of use: in 2017, nearly 30% said
> they had used drugs for PCE

30%?! That seems incredibly high to me.

> based on the Global Drug Survey — an annual, anonymous online questionnaire
> about drug use worldwide.

Oh. So total junk. Got it.

~~~
toomanybeersies
It's not junk, it's just that they've poorly clarified the numbers.

The GDS is a trove of knowledge about drug use habits around the world,
however everyone who takes the survey is a drug user. So 30% of people using
illicit drugs in the USA are using them for performance enhancement. The other
70% are using them recreationally.

The survey's findings need to be taken in further context though. The people
who take the GDS tend to be higher educated and wealthier, due to the channels
that the survey is shared on, and because it's an online survey you're
probably not getting many homeless heroin addicts filling the survey.

Probably the most interesting and reliable data to come from the survey is
actually pricing.

~~~
vostok
> So 30% of people using illicit drugs in the USA are using them for
> performance enhancement. The other 70% are using them recreationally.

Is it not possible for 30% to use them for performance enhancement and for 90%
to use them for recreation?

I am not familiar with the survey design.

~~~
toomanybeersies
You're correct, I didn't interpret the numbers right either. I don't think the
survey asked if they used them exclusively.

I find it quite likely that most people using drugs for performance are
probably also using them recreationally.

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vichu
I highly recommend reading gwern[1] if one is interested in the current state
of what nootropics are being used/considered significant. It is anecdotal, but
also includes many references to literature to those more inclined.

[1] [https://www.gwern.net/Nootropics](https://www.gwern.net/Nootropics)

------
dev_dull
These drugs seem to rise with the stakes. It really used to not matter very
much how you did in high school. Then it became necessary to get a college
degree, more competition for less slots.

It's unfortunate. Makes me sad for my children. Thankfully we have the means
where we don't have to double-down on their education in order to provide for
ourselves later in life.

~~~
ikeyany
Accelerating wealth disparity will do that to a society.

~~~
fzeroracer
Unfortunately yeah. When the stakes are so high for people to break out of
systemic poverty, people will resort to whatever they can in order to get
ahead and find success. This can range from cheating on school tests or hiring
quizzes to actively taking drugs to improve mental performance at other risks
to your body or mental well-being.

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markatkinson
I was prescribed Ritalin in varsity. What a mess. Sure it would help you
concentrate for really long hours, but the juice really wasn't worth the
squeeze for me. It absolutely ruined my mood and at exam time I actually found
myself over stressed, exhausted and not doing terribly well.

I stopped using it pretty soon after that and found a methodology for studying
that suited me personally. Not always easy though.

~~~
AVTizzle
"...the juice really wasn't worth the squeeze for me"

^^ Awesome phrase I've never heard before and can apply to so many situations.
This one's going into my lexicon - thank you!

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jayd16
Stims to perk up? How strange...

 _sips coffee_

~~~
throwawayqdhd
I've always wondered what percentage of people use coffee for stimulation, and
what percentage use it simply to induce the first bowel movement

~~~
mirimir
Actually, I always feel more awake after bowel movements :)

I suspect that's been selected for quite strongly.

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Synaesthesia
Ritalin is nothing new and it’s hardly a smart drug, it’s a stimulant, not
much difference between it and amphetamine (marketed under various names like
Adderal)

~~~
jack_pp
It is a productivity drug and it gives momentum which translates into flow and
if you've ever been in flow then you know you're smarter while in it

~~~
losteric
Ritalin is just a stimulant, whether or not it increases productivity depends
on the individual. Getting into a state of flow certainly does not require any
chemicals.

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toomanybeersies
I think that philosophically I'm against taking drugs to make me work harder,
I don't live to work. I save the party for the weekend, there's something
anti-hedonistic about getting off your bean on dextroamphetamine or modafinal
for work. I've had my fair share of hard mornings, but I've never had the
desire to take substances to help me through the Monday slump.

I'm also medically against it, because it's how habits form. There are a lot
of people who have become addicted to methamphetamine because they started
using to be able to work harder for longer (apparently it's a problem in
industries like meatworks, where workers are paid piece rates per animal).

~~~
raducu
I've tried a lot of substances to help me better focus and I'm sure drugs are
not the single solution and I'm still tunning my approach.

Some substance/combinations have had a dramatic effect on my ability to focus,
unfortunately they are not perfect/and or I'm unable to find some.

I'm not using drugs to "work harder", it's just that I'm unable to work for
weeks at a time without chemical help (I'm chewing some nicotine gum as I'm
typing).

I think that being "medically against it" is doing a tremendous amount of harm
to millions of people throuout the world (in my country you can't bediagnosed
with ADHD as an adult for example), just as being to lax about it.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Using ritalin or dexy because it is prescribed for ADHD is fine, just as it's
fine to take antibiotics or antidepressants if they've been prescribed for you
to be able to function normally.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who use
methamphetamine to work longer shifts, or modafinil to get that mental edge
over their colleagues so they can get that promotion and a pay rise. I believe
that (with the exception of prescribed drugs) you should never take drugs
because you feel you need to. You should only ever take drugs because you want
to. Dropping a cap of MDMA or drinking a bottle of wine because you've had a
shit week is a sure fire way to develop a habit, I know this from experience.

~~~
nradov
That seems like a rather arbitrary distinction considering that diagnosing
mental disorders still involves many false positives and false negatives.

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avcdsuia
I just take a 100mg caffeine and 300mg L-Theanine stack per day, which is safe
and works extremely well for me. Highly recommend you read this[0] before
trying stuffs out.

[0]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/nootropics/wiki/faq](https://www.reddit.com/r/nootropics/wiki/faq)

------
PeOe
Why are drugs so in common these days? I think everyone is able to reach their
goals with other methods as well. Train your brain, get enough sleep and try
meditation for example. You just need the right plan and the ability to really
do it instead of procrastination.

~~~
reustle
Think about it like professional sports. You're in a bike race, and you're
preparing perfectly, but others around you on drugs are blowing by you.

~~~
toomanybeersies
I would rather resign myself to a life of mediocrity than feel compelled to
take drugs just to be able to work.

