
Cognitive enhancement drug may also cause addiction - robg
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090317/full/news.2009.170.html
======
extension
Irrespective of observable physiological effects, any drug, or indeed any
_thing_ that improves our quality of life is addictive. Addiction is part of
the human condition and we're better off just accepting it and letting
ourselves get hooked on things, subject to our own rationally chosen limits.
Those choices should be based on the strength of the addiction and the
benefits and risks of the addictive object. The chemical/psychological
distinction is hardly important.

~~~
katz
> drug, or indeed anything that improves our quality of life is addictive.

There is a difference between using something (and getting used to it because
it increases your quality of life) and a chemical addiction.

> The chemical/psychological distinction is hardly important.

There is a huge difference. If you are addicted to something it is pretty much
a physiological effect on you.

~~~
a-priori
Often when people, and especially the media, say "addiction" they're actually
referring to _psychological dependence_.

Most physiological addictions have a psychological component. As an example,
I'm _addicted_ to caffeine, but I'm also _dependent_ on coffee as part of a
morning routine. Smokers who are addicted to nicotine are often also dependent
on the social aspects of being a smoker. It's often the psychological
component that, long term, is the hardest to break.

The converse, however, is not true. A good example is so-called "Internet
addiction" which should rightfully be called "Internet dependence", at best,
because it has no physiological component.

~~~
TJensen
To say that something like internet addiction has no physiological component
is to vastly understate the power our brain has over the rest of our body. If
your method of getting a dopamine rush is the internet (or world of warcraft,
porn, gambling, etc), you are still going to get physiologically attached to
that dopamine rush and will suffer negative physical reactions (poor mood,
etc) if those things are taken away.

------
swombat
How is this news? Even modafinil.com and Wikipedia already list Dopamine
effects from modafinil.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil>

<http://modafinil.com>

Worth noting, too, that "may cause addiction" does not equal "causes
addiction".

~~~
robg
Nice catch. It's the first imaging study to show the effect, I guess. I think
this is one of the reasons for its popularity. It not only makes some folks
alert. It makes them happy _and_ alert. That's the holy combination. Caffeine
doesn't quite get there and how big is that market? When we look back in fifty
years at the development of custom (and cosmetic) psychotropics, I bet
modafinil leads the story.

------
icey
Out of curiosity, are there any legal stimulants that are non-addictive and
generally low risk to risk free?

I quit smoking a couple of years ago, and my brain never fully recovered from
quitting. I've felt mentally slower ever since I quit.

I've occasionally taken Modafinil, and whenever I've taken it, my brain
resumes back to my smoking baseline. I don't feel amped up on it at all, just
normal.

~~~
chris11
I was slightly curious too, and so did some searching. Surprisingly stimulants
can actually decrease risk of addiction to drugs or alcohol. It was found that
adults who were prescribed medication for ADHD were at less risk for substance
abuse. Now I don't no whether it just reduced risk for addictions to things
other than stimulants, or that it just reduced addiction in people who had
ADHD, but it at least shows that there is a medically safe dose for some
people.

<http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol14N4/ADHD.html>

~~~
extension
Treating a mental disorder/personality quirk that is fucking up your life will
reduce your risk for substance abuse, not to mention loose women and rock and
roll.

It also helps if the drug you're being treated with has a lot of the same
effects, or is in fact the same substance, as the drugs you would otherwise
abuse.

------
speek
Don't screw around with your brain unless you're willing to accept the
consequences for something bad happening to it.

