Nonmedical use of prescription drugs for cognitive enhancement as response to chronic stress especially when social support is lacking

Abstract

The nonmedical use of prescription drugs to improve cognitive performance has gained attention due to concerns over its social and political implications as well as side effects and long‐term health consequences. Some researchers expect a future trend of an instrumental use of drugs for cognitive enhancement (CE). Thus, getting insights about causes of CE‐drug consumption is warranted before the prevalence increases. Because perceived stress is ubiquitous in universities and may decrease cognitive performance, one reaction to cope with stress and its consequences might be the instrumental use of drugs for CE, especially if other resources, such as social support, are lacking. With a prospective design, randomly selected students from four German universities were invited to a web‐based survey and reinterviewed after 6 months (N = 2,203). Results show a 6‐month prevalence rate of self‐reported CE‐drug use of about 2%. Higher reported chronic stress is positively associated with CE‐drug use. Although social support has no main effect, stress‐buffering effects were found. In men with low stress, more support is associated with a higher chance of self‐reported CE‐drug use. These findings can inform intervention and prevention strategies such as changes in drug regulation or sensitizing (potential) users to unwanted health consequences.

Affective disturbances in individuals with methylphenidate use disorder at abstinence

“…On the other hand, strengthening social support might alleviate mood disturbances. Social support has stress-buffering effects which reduce the probability of prescription medicine non-medical use (11). Besides, previous studies suggested that social support plays important roles in reducing the risk of substance use disorder formation and increasing the rate of successful cessation (32).…”

“…Multiple reasons can contribute to the prescription medicine misuse, such as internal personality characteristics like self-e cacy and external environment in uence like social support (10)(11)(12). Therefore, the present study retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of 61 subjects with methylphenidate use disorder who used oral administration.…”

Study drug use among university students in Western Australia: Results of a web survey and their policy and practice implications

“…University variables such as not having take‐home exams and having heavily weighted assessments came up as significant predictors, particularly for the use of prescription and OTC drugs as a CE in the past 12 months. The finding regarding take‐home exams may in part be explained by a recent systematic review which found that take‐home exams were associated with lower student anxiety in at least 10 studies [39] and previous research has noted that CE use has been associated with general [26] and university‐specific [27,30] stress. The finding that illicit drug use predicted the use of CEs in each category was also consistent with the existing literature [19,23,28,29] and unsurprising if one considers it may not be a large leap for those who use illicit drugs recreationally to see taking drugs to improve performance as just another instrumental use of drugs.…”

Making sense of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement: taking stock and looking forward

“…There is then, a need for scholars to look beyond the 'West' and take a more global and comparative perspective to examine understandings of PCE and PCED consumption practices in varied socio-cultural and regulatory environments. Because PCDE use has often been connected to the pressure and stress in western educational institutions and workplaces (Bjønness, 2019, Steward & Pickersgill, 2019Krøll, 2019;Maier et al, 2018;Sattler, 2019), comparative work, analysing different settings and contexts, would help us gain a more nuanced knowledge about the phenomenon. We might also think of future work around pharmaceutical production and 'global supply chains' and how these act to shape consumption practices, to uncover and connect the production and manufacture of pharmaceuticalswhich often takes places within developing countrieswith their distribution, sale and use (Gabe et al, 2015).…”