Warning issued over attention-deficit drugs

Doctors should think twice about prescribing drugs like Ritalin and Adderall used to treat attention deficit disorder to healthy individuals seeking to boost their brain power, says an article in this weeks edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The authors say prescription stimulants are used by some people for cognitive enhancement in the absence of any medical need. "These would be any types of medications that would help people enhance their concentration, memory, cognitive function in general, when they don't necessarily have any type of symptom or illness to be treated with these medications," said lead author Cynthia Forlini, a PhD candidate in neuroethics at McGill University. "So we're talking about healthy individuals who are approaching their doctors for some kind of an edge in their performance," she said.

Read more at The Globe and Mail