Smart Drugs or more precisely cognitive enhancers include a variety of controlled substances available only by prescription. They include stimulants s

Smart Drugs or more precisely cognitive enhancers include a variety of controlled substances available only by prescription. They include stimulants such as dextroamphetamine (sold as Dexedrine and Adderall) and methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta) for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). By mimicking the brain neurotransmitters norepnephrine and dopamine, stimulants leave you utterly consumed with the task at hand until mission accomplished. Then you’re fired up to tackle something else, anything else.

Smart Drugs also include a class known as eugeroics, meanding ‘good arousal’. The eugeroics modafinil and armodafinil (sold as Provigil and Nuvigil) treat narcolepsy and ‘excessive sleepiness’ (ES) due to shift work and sleep apnea. But prescribed offlabel, they’ve also been found effective for ES due to overbearing superiors, perfectionist tendencies, and not enough hours in the day. They work by inhibiting the brain chemicals that cause fatigue, which, in turn energises the brain circuits. The outcome is alertness, focus and short-term memory enhancement. Some say they move you from one challenge to the next with more ease than caffeine – without the jitters.

According to a reader survey conducted by the scientific journal Nature, one in five respondents has used prescription cognitive enhancers for non-medical purposes – that 50% more than those who reported taking these drugs for their intended use!

Unlike ADHD drugs, eugeroics have thus far proved to be a nonaddictive.

Barbara Sahakian, a neuropsychologist says, “People are very attracted to these drugs particularly in today’s distracting techno-culture where we constantly flit from TV to text to IM to Web. (It turns out quite a few people to boost their performance.)

Provigil’s effects last from 6 to 12 hours. There are clear caveats. “Stimulants particularly Adderal carry a risk for addiction,” says National Institute on Drug Abuse director Nora D. Volkow. “Modafinil is too new for us to know the long-term effects. But there’s always a risk without proper surveillance.” The worst side effects (though rare) for these durgs include cardiac complications, sever skin rashes, even suicidal tendencies.

- From Marie Claire