What are study drugs?
In spite of what anyone might have to say about the subject, there simply is never enough time. Not enough time for work. Not enough time for family. Not enough time for love. There certainly is never enough time to binge watch every episode of The Mindy Project—especially not with work, family, and love looming around every corner.
However, thanks to the ingenuity of the human spirit—greatly aided by advancements in medical technology—we’ve come up with new ways to maximize our time and our efficiency. Study drugs are several classes of compounds—typically amphetamines and methylphenidates—that maximize attention, increase breathing and heart rate, and enable humans to increase the amount of priority they give to tasks.
It’s important to note that study drugs don’t actually make humans—or any species for that matter—smarter. Quite the contrary, study drugs simply increase concentration and allow humans to maintain that concentration for a greater amount of time. Study drugs are stimulants, not NZT-48.
How do study drugs work?
It’s easy to look at study drugs as endemic of a larger social problem—namely the immense pressure put on students to succeed—but the truth is that these substances are typically medicines used in the treatment of conditions like ADHD. Indeed, the most well known, and perhaps the most popular, study drugs—Adderall and Ritalin—are normally prescribed to individuals who have been diagnosed with ADHD.
Adderall—an amphetamine—works by increasing the activity of norepinephrine and dopamine in a user’s brain. Ritalin—a methylphenidate—acts in a similar manner. For individuals diagnosed with ADHD, the usage of Adderall and Ritalin means a better, easier, more enjoyable life. For others, these substances are a chance to score slightly higher on a physics exam.
These substances can be addictive, especially if used constantly and without medical oversight, as many users of non-prescribed study drugs eventually discover. Furthermore, even in individuals who have a pre-existing condition, Adderall and Ritalin can cause appetite loss, anxiety, nausea, insomnia, weight loss, irritability, and a number of adverse cardiac side effects. There’s a clear reason why these medicines can’t be purchased over-the-counter—they’re harmful if used without oversight.
Why are study drugs important?
I must be perfectly clear before continuing further: there are some people who need substances like Adderall and Ritalin. These are also the same people who have been diagnosed with these conditions, and who are also capable of obtaining a prescription from a physician. These are typically not the people who abuse Adderall and Ritalin, because their prescriptions are tailored towards their conditions.
However, the truth is that, other than those who have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition, the use of study drugs is not necessary. In simplest terms, for many people who abuse study drugs, a day-planner and better time management skills are more beneficial than any study drug cocktail.
Why, then, are study drugs important? They are very much endemic of a larger social problem: there is an immense pressure put on students to succeed. So much, in fact, that approximately one in five students admit to using study drugs.
What is the future of study drugs?
The human brain, as wonderful as it may be, is burdened by the forces of its own ability. The immense amount of effort it takes for us to pay attention, or solve a basic math problem, or even to maintain our base breathing is made possible because our brains handle all of the heavy lifting.
As people—as students, politicians, scientists, teachers—we frequently come face-to-face with a staggering truth: no matter how much our brains can do, it’s often not enough. There’s not enough time in the day to get everything done. There aren’t enough days in a week to schedule everything perfectly. There aren’t enough seconds in a minute, not enough minutes in an hour, and certainly not enough hours in a day to accomplish everything we dream about.
The future of study drugs, then, is twofold. One, we develop attention-focussing medication that allows us to tap into every inch of our maximum neural capacity—with no negative side-effects. Or, inversely, we, as a species, slow down, collect ourselves, and accept that there are some things that we can do, and that there are some things that simply don’t need to be done.
As always, I’m excited for the absurd possibilities.