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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)."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Common Joe on Thursday April 23 2015, @04:28AM
I have a friend who I suspect is taking Adderall. He didn't admit it to me, but he admitted that he took uppers in the past to help job performance and school learning. Although I believe it's a personal choice whether or not people take drugs, he knows I don't like the idea.
What's interesting is that he has always had severe sleep problems. His natural body rhythm is to start sleeping at 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM and wake up around 10:00 AM or 12:00 PM. That's not conducive to keeping a steady job. I also know he drinks a lot of coffee to stay awake. I always feel for him because the American Dream doesn't allow him to have his natural sleep rhythm. As an insomniac, we both suffer in our own ways.