Gee, I wonder who's bankrolling these scientists: Ritalin as good as sleep for cramming college kids

[marmar]

:think:



AP, via Google:



Scientists back brain drugs for healthy people
By MALCOLM RITTER – 4 hours ago


NEW YORK (AP) — Healthy people should have the right to boost their brains with pills, like those prescribed for hyperactive kids or memory-impaired older folks, several scientists contend in a provocative commentary.

College students are already illegally taking prescription stimulants like Ritalin to help them study, and demand for such drugs is likely to grow elsewhere, they say.

"We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function," and doing it with pills is no more morally objectionable than eating right or getting a good night's sleep, these experts wrote in an opinion piece published online Sunday by the journal Nature.

The commentary calls for more research and a variety of steps for managing the risks.

As more effective brain-boosting pills are developed, demand for them is likely to grow among middle-aged people who want youthful memory powers and multitasking workers who need to keep track of multiple demands, said one commentary author, brain scientist Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Almost everybody is going to want to use it," Farah said. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPdyDIyzLReZYjAUVqb7GnhFfzXwD94U4CU01

[Kutjara]

1. "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

Unfortunately, the song doesn't make it clear that, without sleep, you'll probably be dead inside a month. No drug in the world is going to change that basic fact of neurochemistry.

[MazeRat7]

2. Hey, this was the subject of last weeks Boston Legal n/t

[Arctic Dave]

3. Sleep is for losers, ask a crackhead.

[TlalocW]

4. When I was in college - 14 years ago

A 2-Liter and a pizza were enough to get through a night of cramming.

This makes me uneasy, but I'm of Libertarian bent if you want to put it in your body, go right ahead. As for me, I'm afraid to take anything other than Aspirin because of all the low-voiced, rapid-fire possible symptoms heard at the end of drug commercials - the ones that go, "Flepiapropial may not be right for you. Symptoms include dry-mouth, nausea, ringing in ears, shortness of breath, bleeding from every bodily orifice, webbed toes, rickets, hoof and mouth disease, tennis elbow, the heartbreak of psoriasis, third nipples, and the sniffles."

TlalocW