Smart Drugs - Academics, musicians, even poker champs use pills to sharpen their minds, legally | Hacker News Reader

Smart Drugs - Academics, musicians, even poker champs use pills to sharpen their minds, legally

latimes.com

21 pointsnickb13 comments

I think it would have been valuable if the articles at least mentioned the word nootropics if you are interested there is a lot more to learn about this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropic

There are more YC news comments on this article here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=92136

There was also an article in Nature this month called "Professor's Little Helper" folowed by an active forum discussion that covered some of the same ground as the LA Times article

"Professor's Little Helper" http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7173/full/4501157...

Nature forum discussion http://network.nature.com/forums/naturenewsandopinion/816

Here's the article with no paywall:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-brain_dop...

That one still wanted a login... this one worked from bugmenot whereas all the latimes bugmenots were broken

Username: mail340660@10minutemail.com

Password: loginssuck

Strange I'm getting it for free. I found it on Paul Phillips journal a couple days before it was posted here.

I uploaded it to scribd for the lazy among us:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/941859/Brain-drugs-boost-try-for-m...

All the drugs that they're talking about are some form of amphetamine. The idea isn't new, it's been around since coffe was discovered by the west in the 1500's, and other forms have been popular since Jack Kerouac typed "On the Road" while high on benzedrene.

The only thing new about this is that it's now prescribed and more culturally appropriate.

Erdos was almost always on amphetamines as well.

>All the drugs that they're talking about are some form of amphetamine.

They talk about a lot more than Ritalin and Adderall in the article. They mention Modafinil (an atypical stimulant), Donepezil (an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor) and beta blockers.

> some form of amphetamine ... since coffe was discovered

Caffeine is not really a stimulant. It primarily works as a drowsiness suppressant; it doesn't even measurably do much if you're well rested. Caffeine is not in remotely the same league as amphetamines and other stimulants.

You're a moron.

Downvote me, he's still a moron.

I should have said "All the drugs that they're talking about are some form of stimulant". Sorry, I was tired when I wrote my post.

Just FYI. I'm an ER nurse with 15 years of critical care experience. I do know a couple of things about pharmacology.

But, the idea that caffeine is not a stimulant is simply absurd and wrong. Stimulants tend to be in the same family of drugs. They are chemical cousins and have similar effects.

You don't get that big of a buzz when you drink a cup of coffee because the concentration of caffeine isn't that high. If you were to snort a couple of grams of powdered caffeine, I'm sure that you might change your mind about it being a stimulant. Caffeine is a stimulant alkaloid just like Cocaine. Look it up on Wikipedia if you wish.

Provigil or modafinil is a stimulant, just like caffeine, amphetamines, cocaine and certain over the counter cold medications (ephedrine and pseudephedrine). The difference between these drugs is in the concentration, strength, side effects and duration.

About the two other non-stimulant drugs briefly mentioned in the article:

Donepezil or Arricept is a drug that's used for Alzheimer's patients. I've never heard of it being used on a non-demented patient, although it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't study it on healthy people, too. If it improves your memory loss... you might want to talk to a neurologist anyway, you might have something else going on.

Beta blockers are primarily cardiac drugs and used for blood pressure and heart rate control. If classical musicians are using it to take the edge off the jitters... there's much better ways of doing that other than messing with your cardio-vascular system. It's called valium or ativan. I've taken care of a few too many people who've passed out from unintentionally OD-ing on Beta blockers to think that taking them for nerves is a good idea.

Perhaps I'm a bit jaded, but this article sounded to me a bit like a PR piece for the Pharmaceutical Association of America. "New brain drugs are in and more are coming soon!"

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