Research PaperPharmacological cognitive enhancement among non-ADHD individuals—A cross-sectional study in 15 countries
Section snippets
Background
Pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE), refers to the use of prescription drugs, alcohol and illegal drugs for the purpose of improved performance at work or while studying and has become an increasing area of debate and research (Maier & Schaub, 2015; Maslen, Faulmüller, & Savulescu, 2014). Media articles portrayed PCE among healthy students as common and increasing (Partridge, Bell, Lucke, Yeates, & Hall, 2011), while scientific evidence for such an increase remained weak, (Maier &
The global drug survey (GDS)
The GDS is a cross-sectional anonymous web survey on substance use behaviour widely promoted by a range of media partners including national newspapers, magazines, websites, and social media (Barratt et al., 2017). Each year between November and January the following year, GDS recruits a non-probability sample of respondents, 16 years and over, who have recreationally used legal and/or illegal drugs. The core questionnaire consists of an extensive substance use screen assessing patterns of use,
Sample characteristics
The sample characteristics, by GDS year, are provided in Table 1. Across both years, there were more male than female respondents. The mean age of the sample from 15 countries for GDS 2015 was 29 years (SD = 10.6) and for GDS 2017 was 31 years (SD = 11.9). Roughly one third of the sample from either GDS year were from Germany, the distribution of the sample from other countries ranged between 0.6% (France, GDS 2017) and 12.0% (USA, GDS 2017). From the GDS 2015 sample, two fifths of participants
Discussion
This is the largest study on PCE that has ever been conducted. Data from more than 100,000 participants from 15 countries were collected as part of Global Drug Survey 2015 and 2017. Overall, 4.9% and 13.7% of the global sample reported the 12-month use of prescription or illegal stimulants and/or modafinil to improve the performance at work or while studying. This is on average an increase of 180% that can not only be explained by the self-selection of the sample and the different wording of
Conclusion
The analysis of stimulant use for PCE in the largest global sample shows relatively low-risk PCE use patterns except for participants who recently used illegal stimulants for PCE with no or insufficient access to prescription stimulants. The globalisation of ADHD and related medical treatment (Singh et al., 2013) is likely to influence the country-specific rate of PCE among non-ADHD individuals and needs further investigation. Policy-makers should utilize the best available scientific evidence
Conflict of interest
ARW is the founder and owner of Global Drug Survey. LJM and JAF are part of the Global Drug Survey Core Research Team but have no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
Global Drug Survey Ltd is an independent self-funded survey. The authors received no financial support for the preparation and/or publication of this article. The authors would like to thank Emma Belton and Renee Zahnow for their input on how to best include the new data from the second period of data collection. Most importantly, the authors would like to thank the collaborating global media partners and the study participants who have answered the questions in the module on substance use for
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