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Comment by peteretep | Hacker News Reader

It’s strange to me to hear speed described as a nootropic, although I note that Wikipedia does list it as one. If amphetamine are a nootropic, does cocaine count?

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I thought nootropics were supposed to have positive long-term physiological benefits. Amphetamine is a performance enhancer and maybe even a cognitive enhancer (evidence says otherwise) but it's definitely not nootropic.

I’d have thought so too, but Wikipedia describes it as one, so who knows

If a substance improves certain cognitive metrics in healthy adults, then it qualifies a nootropic, even if it has harmful side effects. Purported nootropics are often also marketed as, or alongside, purported life extension products. Maybe that creates some confusion about what nootropics are.

Nootropics are drugs that boost cognitive performance: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nootropic

From your link:

>and possesses very few side effects and extremely low toxicity.

Only if you take the pharmacological definition. The medical definition is exactly as I said.

What a weird hair to split, pharmacology is a part of medicine.

The "medical" definition is incomplete.

The military has used speed to boost the performance of soldiers in war for almost a century, especially when in extended combat situations to stay alert and awake beyond an ordinary sleep cycle. The Nazis famously gave pep pills to their Panzer tank crews during the 'blitzkriegs' of Poland and France, and many militaries have given it to bomber pilots on extended runs, including the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substit...

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