Abstract
Pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE) refers to the nonmedical use of prescription or recreational drugs to enhance cognitive performance. Several concerns about PCE have been raised in the public. The aim of the present study was to investigate students’ attitudes toward PCE. Students at three Swiss universities were invited by e-mail to participate in a web-based survey. Of the 29,282 students who were contacted, 3,056 participated. Of these students, 22% indicated that they had used prescription drugs (12%) or recreational substances including alcohol (14%) at least once for PCE. The use of prescription drugs or recreational substances including alcohol prior to the last exam was reported by 16%. Users of pharmacological cognitive enhancers were more likely to consider PCE fair (24%) compared with nonusers (11%). Only a minority of the participants agreed with the nonmedical use of prescription drugs by fellow students when assuming weak (7%) or hypothetically strong efficacy and availability to everyone (14%). Two-thirds (68%) considered performance that is obtained with PCE less worthy of recognition. Additionally, 80% disagreed that PCE is acceptable in a competitive environment. More than half (64%) agreed that PCE in academia is similar to doping in sports. Nearly half (48%) claimed that unregulated access to pharmacological cognitive enhancers increases the pressure to engage in PCE and educational inequality (55%). In conclusion, Swiss students’ main concerns regarding PCE were related to coercion and fairness. As expected, these concerns were more prevalent among nonusers than among users of pharmacological cognitive enhancers. More balanced information on PCE should be shared with students, and future monitoring of PCE is recommended.
Highlights
The nonmedical use of prescription drugs or recreational drugs to improve cognitive performance is referred to as pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE), which is oftenPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0144402 December 10, 2015Attitudes toward Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement discussed in terms of ethical considerations and morality [1,2,3,4]
We investigated the frequency of the nonmedical use of prescription and recreational drugs [6] to statistically compare attitudes toward PCE between users and nonusers of pharmacological cognitive enhancers
Students who were experienced with PCE considered drug use for PCE as more acceptable than nonusers in both environments (Table 1)
Summary
The nonmedical use of prescription drugs or recreational drugs to improve cognitive performance is referred to as pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE), which is oftenPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0144402 December 10, 2015Attitudes toward Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement discussed in terms of ethical considerations and morality [1,2,3,4]. The prevalence of PCE among Swiss university students and their perceived pressure to use drugs for PCE were recently investigated by two web-based studies [6,7]. Both studies included a small set of questions to examine students’ concerns about PCE in general, not differentiating between substances and different situations of use. Students worried about the medical safety of drugs that are used for PCE and reported perceiving peer pressure to use drugs for PCE [6,7]. Users of pharmacological cognitive enhancers were less concerned about side effects and potential disadvantages in those who refuse to use PCE compared with nonusers [7]. Interviews with 18 healthy German students who used prescription drugs for PCE revealed that students see a moral difference between PCE with drugs and PCE with caffeine [9]
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