Those who have passed and used Ritalin for the final exams – without a doctor’s prescription – may wonder whether it helped. Perhaps the diploma is in spite of the concentration-enhancing drugs. That thought comes to mind when reading a study in Science Advances. It shows that solving complex everyday problems does not seem to go better with ‘smart’ pills.
Used in the Netherlands one in twenty students sometimes Ritalin or something similar to study better. Students also know how to find the remedy, as was shown again around exams. In Australia, the researchers looked at forty 18 to 35-year-olds without an ADHD diagnosis to see how they solved complex, everyday problems, such as navigating, planning, designing and budgeting.
The subjects received one of the three drugs or a placebo at different times. Methylphenidate (known under the brand names Ritalin or Concerta), modafinil and dexamfetamine all do slightly different things, but all three act on the messenger chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain region involved in motivation, actions and cognition. In addition to being used as ADHD medication, they are used as a ‘smart drug’ to improve cognition and performance.
Knapsack problems
But what is that reputation worth? The researchers wanted to know this, also because they had not yet seen good evidence that concentration pills could mean anything in everyday life for people without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. To test this, the subjects had to solve ‘knapsack problems’. From a number of parts, each with its own weight and value, they had to find the combination with the highest total value without exceeding the maximum. There are no formulas for that, every assignment is a new puzzle.
It is difficult to prove that a smart pill also gives smart answers
It turned out that the drug takers needed on average more time to find a solution than the placebo group, and more attempts, which also turned out less well, without this leading to more good solutions. And the more attempts they made, the less they put in effort along the way. With each of the drugs, those participants’ efforts went all over the place, choosing the contents of their knapsacks randomly and carelessly. Remarkably, the quality of the effort was most consistent with the placebo. And those who did relatively well with a placebo, deteriorated the most with real pills.
It seems, the researchers write, that the favorable trade-off between reward and effort that the drugs are supposed to achieve does provide a subjective reward and a perception of little effort, but without hitting the target.
The neuroeconomists from the universities of Cambridge and Melbourne show nothing new about the effect of methylphenidate, modafinil and dexamfetamine in the brain. What they do show is that it is difficult to prove that a smart pill will also give you smart answers.
In the Netherlands, the Trimbos Institute, which conducts research into substance use, has been insisting for some time that there is no consistent evidence that these substances have a performance-enhancing effect when used improperly (i.e. without a prescription), even though students sometimes experience this differently.
The side effects, such as headache, insomnia, nervousness and palpitations, have been proven
The side effects, such as headache, insomnia, nervousness and palpitations, have been proven. And: thinking that you can no longer do without it. Trimbos expert Michelle van der Horst: “If you think you need to study: seek help so that you can learn to concentrate better.”