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posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the better-living-through-chemistry dept.

The NYT reports that drugs like Adderall were once only prescribed to help children with attention deficit disorders focus on their school work but then college students found those drugs could increase their ability to study. Now a growing number of workers use them to help compete. What will happen as these drugs are more widely used in the workplace? According to Anjan Chatterjee, the use of neurotechnologies to enhance healthy people’s brain function could easily become widespread. "If anything, we worship workplace productivity by any means. Americans work longer hours and take fewer vacations than most others in the developed world. Why not add drugs to energize, focus and limit that annoying waste of time — sleep?" Julian Savulescu says that what defines human beings is their extraordinary cognitive power and their ability to enhance that power through reading, writing, computing and now smart drugs. "Eighty-five percent of Americans use caffeine. Nicotine and sugar are also cognitive enhancers," says Savulescu.

But cognitive neurologist Martha Farah, says that regular use on the job is an invitation to dependence. "I also worry about the effect of drug-fueled productivity on people other than the users," says Farah. "It is not hard to imagine a supervisor telling employees that this is the standard they should aspire to in their work, however they manage to do it (hint, hint). The eventual result will be a ratcheting up of “normal” productivity, where everyone uses (and the early adopters’ advantage is only fleeting)."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by tathra on Tuesday April 21 2015, @10:48PM

    by tathra (3367) on Tuesday April 21 2015, @10:48PM (#173729)

    But amphetamine are have an undeserved bad reputations.

    a lot of the problems associated with stimulants are due to a lack of sleep, nutrition, and general bodily upkeep, however using amphetamines for a really long time (like daily for years) will cause parkinsons (thats how hitler got parkinsons).

    this whole idea is fucking retarded though. why are we even toying with the idea of allowing 80+ hour work weeks be the standard, and playing with ideas of how to do it? remember way back when you could work half that and make enough money to raise a family (with only one worker in the house)? there's also the problem of how many employers force you to violate your privacy to prove yourself innocent, despite the fact that what employees do during their time off is none of their boss's business; even if people wanted to use stims to keep their job (because they dont want to get fired for not working the mandatory unpaid overtime), they'd just get fired as soon as the company decides its time to see what employees do in their free time.

    i'm starting to have trouble distinguishing the current work market from slavery.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @11:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @11:02PM (#173735)

    Oh, sorry I am not American, I work 35hr a week, overtime after 37hr and I take Vyvanse because I have the attention span of a guppy fish. Even if I mentally could work 80hr a week on Vyvanse I have no desire to do so, I am not a masochist :)
    And about Parkinson you need a big daily dose or methamphetamine (desoxyn), a responsible usage like the mathematician I have named is as harmless as a reasonable coffee usage

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by tathra on Wednesday April 22 2015, @02:32AM

      by tathra (3367) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @02:32AM (#173788)

      a responsible usage like the mathematician I have named is as harmless as a reasonable coffee usage

      "harmless" is relative. overstimulation, like from amphetamines or mdma or even psychedelic amphetamines, causes neuron death: [nih.gov]

      In conclusion, hallucinogenic amphetamines promoted programmed neuronal death involving both the mitochondria machinery and the extrinsic cell death key regulators. Death was dependent, at least in part, on the stimulation of the 5-HT(2A)-receptors.

      more on amphetamine toxicity: [nih.gov]

      There is mounting evidence that the characteristics of amphetamine-induced toxicity extend beyond the selective damage to DA and 5-HT terminals to include neuronal and endothelial cell bodies. The underlying mechanisms have yet to be elucidated, and the consequences of this extended damage remain to be determined. However, the causes of the newly identified consequences to cell bodies most likely involve a convergence of excitotoxic, pro-teolytic, inflammatory, and bioenergetic processes that interact with and contribute to the previously established role of oxidative stress. Although basic experimental studies have provided clear, interpretable roles for each of these causative processes, we now know that each process does not occur in isolation. Moreover, the frequent comorbidities of the abuse of the amphetamines with other exposures, such as environmental stress, hyperthermia, and HIV infection, add to the complexity and severity of the toxicity. More studies are needed that take into account and model the more realistic scenario involving their concurrent exposures, comorbidities, and how they interact before effective therapeutic interventions can developed.

      as long as you use in moderation, you'll probably be fine since you have to lose a lot of DA-producing neurons for it to really be noticeable (something like 70-80%), but amphetamines, or really any drug that can overstimulate receptors, is far more toxic than coffee. the shit can be fun, sure, but unlike opioids which really are harmless (about the only pysiological change with opioids is the unbinding of G-proteins from their receptors, something which can be reversed with reverse agonists/antagonists), there really is toxicity associated with these drugs. its important to know and understand the facts, at least somewhat, to prevent from messing yourself up for the rest of your life.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @03:03AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @03:03AM (#173797)

        Therapeutical dose are the key as you need really relatively high doses of pure amphetamine to trigger da neurons damage, mdma and meth are a magnitude more harmfull. Vyvanse is even gentler than amphetamine sulfate... I am pretty sure that bacon and beer will kill me well before I get permanent damage from Vyvanse ;)

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @03:44AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @03:44AM (#173806)

          Sorry for lacking the adequate English fluency to adequately express why meth is a lot more armful than amphetamine but let me give you a crude and flawed explanation : Methamphetamine and methylendioxymehtamphetamine make the dopamine containing vesicles explode, amphetamine only puncture them. I wish I could give a better description but I lack the proper English terminology for it...

        • (Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday April 22 2015, @04:35AM

          by tathra (3367) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @04:35AM (#173822)

          Vyvanse is even gentler than amphetamine sulfate...

          vyvanse is an amphetamine pro-drug, ie, its primary metabolite is amphetamine. being amphetamine, its effects and toxicity will be equal to amphetamine.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @11:50AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @11:50AM (#173915)

            Peak concentration is important with regard to toxicity. Yes Vyvanse is a prodrug but it's pharmacokinetics is quite different.