Pharmacological neuroenhancement and the ability to recover from stress – a representative cross-sectional survey among the German population

Abstract

BackgroundPharmacological neuroenhancement (PNE) refers to the use of psychoactive substances without doctor’s prescription to enhance cognitive performance or to improve mood. Although some studies have reported that drugs for PNE are also being used to cope with stressful life situations, nothing is known about the relationship of PNE and resilience, i.e. the ability to recover from stress. This study aimed at investigating the relationship of PNE and resilience in the first representative population sample.MethodsA cross-sectional survey in a representative sample of 1128 adults (age ≥ 18 yrs.) living in Germany was conducted. The use of PNE and related attitudes, perceptions and behaviours were assessed by structured interviews and self-report questionnaires. Stepwise logistic regression with backward elimination was conducted to identify potential risk factors for PNE use.ResultsLifetime prevalence for the use of stimulating prescription drugs without medical indication was 4.3%, 10.2% for stimulating illicit drugs, 20.3% for mood modulating prescription drugs, and 23.4% for cannabis. Coping with stressful situations was more frequently reported as underlying motive for using stimulant or mood modulating prescription drugs than stimulating illicit drugs or cannabis. The individual perceived stress increased the risk of using stimulating prescription drugs (OR: 2.86; 95% Cl: 1.49–5.46) and the individual ability to recover from stress decreased the risk of using any substance for PNE and especially mood modulating prescription drugs (OR: .62; 95% Cl: .47–.81).ConclusionsThe non-medical use of prescription drugs for PNE appears to be more prevalent in subjects who are less resilient to stress. Tailored resilience interventions that improve the ability to adapt to and recover from stressors may prevent the use of prescription medication for PNE. Further research should disentangle the association between psychological resilience and PNE as well as examine the efficacy of resilience interventions in the prevention of PNE.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13011-018-0174-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Placebo- and Nocebo-Effects in Cognitive Neuroenhancement: When Expectation Shapes Perception

“…The number of students using prescription drugs to improve cognitive performance without medical indication has increased over the last years, in spite of the potential risks associated with this use (1). Prevalence rates of non-medical stimulant use of 8.3% (lifetime) and 5.9% (past-year) in a sample of 4,580 US college students (2), 4.3% (lifetime) in a representative sample of 1,128 adults in the German population (3), and a lifetime prevalence rate of 6.5% among Australian university students (4) have been reported…”

The Prevalence of Beta-Blocker Use Among Medical Students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, when our findings were compared with a study conducted from Saudi Arabia, it was found that 30% of medical and dental students at KSAU-HS used propranolol during their college years [ 13 ]. According to a German study conducted in a general population, 38.8% of people used psychoactive drugs for non-medical reasons such as coping with stress and cognitive performance enhancement [ 15 ]. Beta-blockers comprised (8.5%) of the used drugs in that study [ 15 ].…”

Pharmakologisches Neuroenhancement in Deutschland

“…Die Angaben zur (Lebenszeit-) Prävalenz in Deutschland variieren je nach Erhebungsmethode, dem abgefragten Zeitpunkt der Einnahme und den untersuchten Zielgruppen und Stoffen bei verschreibungspflichtigen und illegalen Substanzen zwischen einem und 39 %, für frei erhältliche Mittel werden z. T. deutlich höhere Prävalenzen berichtet. Bevölkerungsrepräsentative Befragungen [7,15] sind äußerst selten, stattdessen werden v. a. Schüler und Studierende [4][5][6][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], Sportler [24,25] sowie Berufstätige in bestimmten eng umrissenen Altersspannen [26,27] und/oder Tätigkeitsfeldern [3,28,29] von der Forschung ins Visier genommen (▶tab. 1).…”

“…Beim RKI fallen dagegen sowohl die Nutzung verschreibungspflichtiger Substanzen als auch der Konsum illegaler und frei erhältlicher Mittel unter pNE, das als Einsatz zur "Verbesserung kognitiver Fähigkeiten, des psychischen Wohlbefindens oder zur Beruhigung" definiert wird [7]. Wieder andere Studien fragen nach Stoffen, die die "Bewältigung studienbezogener Anforderungen" [6] erleichtern oder schließen Entspannung oder Stressbewältigung als Ziele in ihre Definitionen ein [4,15].…”

“…Prävalenzstudien in Deutschland (verschreibungspflichtige und illegale Substanzen). Mainzer Forschergruppe aus dem Herbst 2016[15] fand Lebenszeitprävalenzen für den Konsum verschreibungspflichtiger Medikamente und illegaler Substanzen zur geistigen Leistungssteigerung, Stimmungsverbesserung, der Reduktion von Ängsten und Nervosität und zum Stressmanagement von knapp 39 %. Die Jahresprävalenz lag bei 19, die Monatsprävalenz bei 10 %.…”