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Professor's little helper

Nature volume 450, pages 1157–1159 (2007)Cite this article

The use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by both ill and healthy individuals raises ethical questions that should not be ignored, argue Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir.

Although the appeal of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers — to help one study longer, work more effectively or better manage everyday stresses — is understandable, potential users, both healthy and diseased, must consider the pros and cons of their choices. To enable this, scientists, doctors and policy-makers should provide easy access to information about the advantages and dangers of using cognitive-enhancing drugs and set out clear guidelines for their future use. To trigger broader discussion of these issues we offer the following questions, to which readers can respond in an online forum. Now, on to the questions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and the MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir are at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK.,

    Barbara Sahakian & Sharon Morein-Zamir

Authors
  1. Barbara Sahakian
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  2. Sharon Morein-Zamir
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Competing interests

Barbara Sahakian consults for several pharmaceutical companies and for Cambridge Cognition. She also has shares in CeNeS.

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Sahakian, B., Morein-Zamir, S. Professor's little helper. Nature 450, 1157–1159 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/4501157a

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