Brain medication being used to ‘gain an edge’ at school and work

Drugs typically used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are being increasingly used by healthy people to gain a competitive edge at school, university and work.

The claims are made by experts writing in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

The growing “lifestyle use” of brain-enhancing drugs —such as methylphenidate (marketed as Ritalin, used to treat ADHD) and modafinil (marketed as Provigil, used to improve wakefulness in adults with sleep disorders) — is against a backdrop of very little being known about the long-term effects of non-medical use, according to the authors, neuroscientists Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir from the University of Cambridge in the UK.