More and more people are doing brain doping

Addictiveness: Use of performance-enhancing medicines massively increased

06/21/2011

The use of performance-enhancing drugs in the population is increasing massively. The German Employees Health Insurance Fund (DAK) came in 2009 in a representative survey to the conclusion that about five percent of employees have ever resorted to performance-enhancing or mood-enhancing drugs. Frequently, the use of supposed miracle drugs (brain doping) is already started at school. Now warns the German main office for addiction issues insistently against the addictive potential of the supposed miracle drugs.

The enormous pressure to perform in everyday life means that more and more people regularly use performance-enhancing substances in order to keep pace in society. About 320,000 employees, according to the DAK survey, take medicines daily or several times a week to increase their performance or to improve their mood. More and more people seem to consider it justifiable to use drugs to optimize their cognitive performance in order to keep up in the professional (school) everyday life. That the use of the medications is not medically necessary and may cause significant health problems, it is evidently regularly repressed.

With medicines against the pressure to perform?
In order to meet the requirements of the modern meritocracy, more and more people in this country resort to supposed miracle pills. The DAK report shows that the inhibition threshold for the use of performance-enhancing and mood-enhancing medicines has dropped significantly in recent years. Around five percent of the employees take corresponding preparations without a medical indication. Against this background, the experts of the German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS) and the drug expert, Professor Dr. Gerd Glaeske from the Center for Social Policy of the University of Bremen warned against the addiction risk of the so-called brain doping. In addition, many of the preparations used were proven to be ineffective and would impair cognitive performance rather than promote it, explained Prof. Dr. med. Glaeske. According to the renowned expert, for example, the use of Ritalin leads „in healthy people, neither to desired mood enhancement nor to increase the performance“ but rather to „Reduction of efficiency and activity.“ In addition, taking the supposed miracle drugs is often associated with an increased risk of side effects, dependencies and serious long-term consequences, the experts said.

Side effects and dependence risk

On the occasion of its 19th Scientific Symposium in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg, the German Center for Addiction Issues has urgently warned against the consequences of so-called brain doping. More and more teenagers and adults try with the help of medication „to increase the brain's capacity, but also emotional and social competence“, so the message of the DHS. Around 800,000 employees stated in the DAK investigation, „that they dope regularly and very specifically“, the experts of the DHS continue to report. Accordingly, about 320,000 employees take „daily or several times a week drugs to improve performance and mood lightening“. Thus, the so-called brain doping becomes a growing problem. Because the supposed miracle drugs often do not reach the desired effect and in addition to possible health impairments due to the risk of side effects, there is a considerable addictive potential, warn the experts. Not the physical but the psychological dependence is the main problem here. Those affected are often no longer able to withstand the pressure to perform in everyday life without the medicines.

Variety of adverse effects of brain doping drugs
The DHS Managing Director, Dr. Ing. Raphael Gaßmann, stated that under brain doping in general „the intake of chemical substances“ to increase performance and mood improvement is to understand. As she „Easy to use and quickly available compared to other neurotechnology applications“ More and more Germans are resorting to the supposed miracle pills, explained Gassmann. It was „The abuse of prescription drugs is an attempt to meet even the most absurd performance requirements.“ The most common preparations are, according to the expert „stimulating agents such as methylphenidate“ (for example Ritalin), which is used in the medically-indicated treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the modafinil (trade name Vigil) used for the treatment of sleeping sickness (narcolepsy). also „certain antidepressants (including serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs)“ Increasingly used to improve general mental well-being, despite the fact that they were actually developed to treat depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, experts at DHS said. In healthy people, however, different antidepressants are rather performance-inhibiting, so that a medically unsubstantiated use should be rejected in principle, the DHS continues. The anti-dementia drugs used to improve cognitive performance are also questionable, since „No evidence to increase the memory of healthy by anti-dementia drugs“ consist. Both anti-dementia drugs and antidepressants tend to do so „In healthy people trigger a variety of adverse effects, such as headache, inner restlessness and nausea“, warned the DHS.

Align employment and social benefits with health policy
The experts such as Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Glaeske come to the conclusion that taking the supposed miracle cure „in healthy people, neither to desired mood enhancement nor to increase the performance“ leads. Instead, threaten „the reduction of performance and activity“ and among other undesirable side effects, for example, the stimulants methylphenidate and modafinil have a particularly high psychological risk of dependence, said Glaeske. Generally, according to the DHS experts in brain doping, the risk of psychological dependence is particularly high. This increased dependency risk should „individually with behavioral prevention and institutionally with relationship prevention“, demanded the DHS. Especially in the field of employment regulations and social benefits is on „socio-political and institutional level, the additional implementation of preventive services“ required. Workplace regulations and benefits may no longer be exclusive „are politically discussed and decided, but are clearer than before to align health policy“, warned the DHS. Dr. Raphael Gaßmann concluded with the following conclusion: „We do not just live to work! If school, education and work make you sick or addicted, it's time to defuse them in principle.“ In order to be better able to deal with the pressure to perform better, Prof. dr. Renate Soellner, pay more attention to the body's signals to prevent overloading. A good time management with breaks can help as well as a well-organized workplace, said the expert. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann