A recent endeavor has brought to light some alarming facts. Drugs called as ‘cognitive enhancers’ which are taken by people suffering degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, to give a fillip to memory and alertness, is also being consumed by healthy people, like students to enable a performance edge in their examination.  

This may just be the beginning, and soon urine tests may need to be conducted to ascertain if students are under the influence of brain improving drugs.

A research team headed by Cambridge University neuroscience expert Sir Gabriel Horn embarked on a detailed study to understand the use of psychoactive drugs which can influence brain performance.

Years of research had also led to the knowledge of genes behind the onset of mental illness.  

The group's report also indicated that the future may see the use of vaccines to offset addiction, like the present preoccupation among scientists for a vaccine against smoking.

Sir Gabriel said: "We see similarities in the future use of cognition enhancers with the current use of performance enhancing drugs in sport."

"These drugs are prescription drugs and therefore you need to go to the doctor to get them. I don't think the system is that open to abuse," said a British Pharmaceutical Industry spokesman who played down the idea of such medicines being extensively.

Source-Medindia
SAV/K