Mental speed is high until age sixty

Re:Mental speed is high until age sixty by ben_w on Monday April 18, 2022 @07:35AM (#31069415)

I’ve not seen anyone taboo mental stimulant drugs, the closest I’ve seen to that is (1) people don’t like things associated with treating mental illnesses and (2) that it’s hard to tell the difference between real medicine and quackery.

Outside those two categories, caffeine is one of the most used mental stimulants in the world, and sold in forms emphasising this use.

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Re:Mental speed is high until age sixty by moonchrome on Monday April 18, 2022 @08:29AM (#31069771)

You can't buy or request modafinil for performance enhancement, even with doctor supervision, despite known side effects being very benign.

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Re:Mental speed is high until age sixty by ben_w on Monday April 18, 2022 @08:31AM (#31069786)

I can say that about a very large number of substances with no mental stimulation effect — There’s a reason pharmacology is a degree all by itself, but that’s still not “$category is taboo”.

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Re:Mental speed is high until age sixty by moonchrome on Monday April 18, 2022 @08:43AM (#31069878)

I don't get your argument ? What would be the benefit of giving such drugs in comparison to risks and how does that relate to modafinil ?

Walk in to your doctors office and ask getting modafinil prescribed for improved work performance. What's the argument against it ? The ones I've heard are about them being there to treat conditions, etc. and giving stuff like this to boost performance of healthy individuals is very much a taboo.

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Re:Mental speed is high until age sixty by ben_w on Monday April 18, 2022 @02:47PM (#31074827)

A quick search for modafinil contraindications tells me it should not be taken with alcohol and it makes certain kinds of birth control less effective.

I’m not even remotely qualified to so much as read and understand medical jargon, but even I can recognise that several items on this ([0]) long list of stuff that interferes with (or is interfered by) mondafil includes both food and stuff you can get without prescription from the new-age-hippie section of a supermarket. Given the dumb things my hippie mum gave me as a teenager (and my dad without telling him [1]), all I can say is that this seems to me to be unwise to make trivially available.

Perhaps I’m wrong. After all, the fact a random person like me can’t read and interpret the warnings like a professional would is as much a limit on how seriously to take my concern as it is a reason to be concerned.

[0] https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/modafinil-index.html

[1] at the very least Bach flower “remedies”, which would probably be harmless except for all the alcohol. She thought she was doing all of us a favour.

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