The Invention of a mental steroid

If there were a pill that could help you study for hours on end, would you take it? What if you could stay up all night and work without feeling even slightly fatigued? Pharmacological agents that are available today help achieve these effects. Compounds familiar to many, such as Adderall and Ritalin, are found to have widespread and increasing usage on college campuses and within research institutions. However, these drugs aren’t being used to treat their prescribed disorders, but rather have been found to have nootropic effects; these drugs have the ability to enhance “normal” cognitive function of the human brain. This raises many questions, perhaps most importantly, whether or not these medicines, designed to treat mental disorders, should be allowed for the recreational augmentation of healthy individuals’ cognitive abilities.