Posted on 05/21/2008 5:44:35 PM PDT by Aristotelian
Schools and universities could soon be facing a different kind of drug problem: a rise in students taking brain-enhancing pills to boost their exam results.
Government advisers warned yesterday that new drugs to treat conditions as varied as Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit disorder, and narcolepsy are in danger of being misused by students eager to bump up their grades.
The use of brain-boosting drugs, many of which are designed to improve memory and attention span in people with serious degenerative brain diseases, could become as big a problem for the education system as performance-enhancing drugs are in sport, the experts said.
The warning comes in a report from the Academy of Medical Sciences, which was commissioned by the government in 2006 to survey the implications of expected progress in brain sciences and drug research. The report urges the government to be alert to the misuse of "cognitive-enhancers" and to prepare the ground for regulations and even urine tests to control their use in schools, universities and workplaces.
"Students using cognitive enhancers raises exactly the same issues as athletes using drugs to improve their performance. The risk is they could give people an unfair advantage in exams - and examination results stand for a lot in this country," said Professor Les Iversen, a pharmacologist at Oxford University and co-author of the report.
Since the drugs are designed to be taken by people with dementia and other serious disorders, there is scant data on how safe or effective they are if taken by healthy people, the report warns.
The group of scientists behind the report identified six categories of drugs, already available on prescription, which claim to boost brain function. These include modafinil, which is used to treat narcolepsy, ritalin and related amphetamines for attention deficit disorder, and donepazil for Alzheimer's disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Too bad they don’t do any good.
The only solution is studying.
Students? The faculty will take these drugs. Publish or perish.
I NEED one of those!
“this is your brain” (roll footage of WalMart Assistant Manager)
“this is your brain on drugs” (roll footage of same person winning Nobel Prize for Physics)
Why is this cheating exactly? If you didn’t study, not amount of drugs will help you get the right answer. Is drinking coffee before an exam cheating? In my mind, as long as you’re not using crib notes or copying someone else’s answers, its okay.
Note to self: Trust no-one under 30.
Oh my! Students getting smarter? We shouldn’t have that.
I was thinking, “So what if the train moves more quickly—if there’s nothing ON the train?”
And pure aptitude/IQ scores, which you really can't study to improve.
So...work up some data, already!
The risk is they could give people an unfair advantage in exams
Rampant egalitarianism is the culprit here, IMHO. It's not too far removed from the mindset that leads to giving minorities preference in hiring and school admissions. Fairness above all else, aka "equal outcomes." In other words, Political Correctness.
So your recall was “better” I guess those vitamin waters at Walgreens would also be verbotten.
And this is nothing new. Weren’t the college kids in Animal House popping speed pills before their exam (they crammed on an incorrect answer key).
JFK was pumped full of drugs when he was negotiating with the USSR too.
How many employers are going to take this same tactic?
There are countless radio ads on talk radio for substances to “improve memory” especially as you age.
So does this mean that certain students are going to be required to belt down 3 shots of Jaggermeister before taking a pop quiz?
It's definitely not healthy but it does boost studying ability. Especially in people that have prescriptions for it.
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