Swiss University Students' Attitudes toward Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

PLoS One. 2015 Dec 10;10(12):e0144402. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144402. eCollection 2015.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Cognition / drug effects*
  • Electronic Mail
  • Female
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nootropic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Prescription Drugs / pharmacology*
  • Regression Analysis
  • Students / psychology
  • Students / statistics & numerical data
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Switzerland
  • Universities
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Nootropic Agents
  • Prescription Drugs

Grants and funding

This study was supported by internal funds from the Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, University Hospital Basel (ML), Swiss Centre of Applied Human Toxicology (SCAHT) (ML), and Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction (ISGF), Zurich (MS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.