Why university professors are popping pills
Students aren’t the only ones popping pills to boost brain power – their tutors are at it too, reports Joe Shute
Afew years ago, Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge University, took a flight to Florida where she was due to speak at a conference. When she discovered she had been assigned a late afternoon slot she complained to a fellow delegate that she was suffering from jet-lag and it would be a struggle to stay alert.
His instant response was to offer her some of his personal supply of Modafinil, a so-called “smart drug” only prescribed in the UK to treat narcolepsy, but one that is now being used and abused in the ivory towers of academia.
During the tea break at the conference, Prof Sahakian then asked her fellow academics what, if any, drugs they took to boost their brain power and performance. The response took her by surprise.
“Some were taking Adderall; some were taking Ritalin; some were taking Modafinil,” she recalls. “Almost all of them said that they took drugs to help them sleep on aeroplanes.”
During a talk at last week’s Hay Festival, another leading Cambridge neuroscientist, Dr Hannah Critchlow, raised concerns that professors were increasingly relying upon medication meant for Alzheimer’s patients, narcoleptics or children with ADHD simply to perform their day jobs.
Dr Critchlow told the audience about a study that revealed that one in five academic professors admitted taking these smart drugs in order to help with their grant writing and even concentrate in committee meetings.
In 2013, it was revealed that as many as a quarter of students at leading British universities may have experimented with smart drugs to boost their performance in the run-up to exams. A survey published in the student newspaper The Tab showed that 26 per cent of students at the University of Oxford claimed to have used Modafinil.
Meanwhile, one quarter of young people at Newcastle and Leeds universities claimed to have tried the drug and around one in five at universities such as Imperial College, Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester.
Drugs like Modafinil and Ritalin are stimulants, while another popular smart drug, Adderall (prescribed in the US to treat ADHD) also contains an amphetamine. These pills are thought to work by improving neurotransmitters to manipulate the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain and enhance an individual’s ability to plan and problem-solve – in much the same way as caffeine does.
Exactly what – and how powerful – the effects of smart drugs are remains a subject of fierce debate. But as the pressures and intensity of university life increase, their use is becoming widespread on campus.
Academics are finding themselves squeezed on both sides by students who are ever more demanding because of the high fees they pay, and global competition, which has narrowed the field for grants and jobs.
“It’s definitely an increasing problem,” says Prof Sahakian, who 10 years ago published a seminal paper on the issue entitled “Professor’s Little Helper”.
“The number of people I have spoken to who get on a plane and take a drug to put them asleep and another to wake them up on the other side is really quite large and growing. The practice of getting yourself in the right state for high-level performance, using drugs as a lifestyle, is pretty high.”
While Adderall, Modafinil and Ritalin may keep users more alert and focused during the day, reducing the need for sleep and rest, the long-term effects are unknown.
Unlike in the US, where academics can be prescribed the drugs as “shift workers”, in Britain they are often being ordered online in an unlicensed trade. “It is a very unsafe way to get prescription-only medication because you don’t know what exactly you are getting,” Prof Sahakian says.
One academic open about his use of drugs is Dr Anders Sandberg, 44, a research fellow at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute.
He says he first started taking
‘Lots of these drugs are being taken in Silicon Valley and the City of London’
Modafinil as part of his research into the social and ethical issues of cognitive-enhancing drugs. Now he says he takes it about every two to three weeks – “when I need to have an effective day”.
Because of the ready availability of the drug, his habit only costs around £50 a year. As proof that he is not addicted, he argues that he sometimes forgets to order the next batch. But when he does take it, he registers a marked change in his performance.
“It’s handling the really complicated philosophy lecture where you need to stay attentive to every line of argument or writing a really difficult paper,” he says. “It is at that point I started to notice the difference.”
Dr Sandberg likens the drug to drinking a strong cup of coffee. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing but then it’s not necessarily a great thing either,” he says.
“It’s very hard to improve on something as great as the human brain but what we can do is tilt it in certain directions.” He thinks it would make better sense to allow British GPS to prescribe these smart drugs more freely in order to regulate the market, and understand exactly what the benefits and perils may be.
Why does he believe the use of such drugs is so popular in academia?
“We are obsessed with brains and cognition and thinking,” he says. “In academia there is a premium on thinking well and learning quickly.”
The drugs, it seems, do work. In 2015 Oxford University and Harvard Medical School looked at 24 studies into Modafinil and concluded that it really does improve thinking skills, particularly in long complex tasks. It was also found to help with planning, decision-making, flexibility, learning and memory, and creativity.
The side effects, researchers said, appeared to be few.
But the scientists who led the study stressed that proof of its efficacy raises serious ethical questions about whether it should be “classified, condoned or condemned”. If it’s proven to sharpen one’s competitive edge, then how many others will be tempted to try it?
Certainly, it is not just in academia where smart drugs are being taken. According to Prof Sahakian, as more of us work longer hours behind a computer screen, they are appearing in many industries and professions.
“In Silicon Valley there are a lot of these drugs being taken, and a lot of micro-boosting to improve productivity,” Prof Sahakian says. “The same in the City of London where people have to stay at the top of their game.”
Ultimately, Prof Sahakian believes it should not come down to banning the drugs, but rather reducing the value we place upon their effects.
“I wish people would try to think as a society how this is affecting us and really engage in a discussion,” she says. “Do we want to move to a 24/7 society where we work and compete all the time or do we want to consider our quality of life?”
Put simply, perhaps it is time to realise we have reached our working limit, rather than forcing ourselves even further into the fray.