[ExI] The Myth of Cognitive Enhancement Drugs?

[William Flynn Wallace]

On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 8:46 AM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12152-015-9232-9
> <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12152-015-9232-9?utm_campaign=CON31776_1&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=email&wt_mc=email.newsletter.8.CON31776.internal_1>
>
> Takeaway: "... the overall evidence is far from conclusive that these
> drugs actually improve cognitive function in the cognitively normal."
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>
>
​The problems with these studies​

​are many.  First, they give drugs to very heterogeneous samples composed,
say, of introverts and extroverts.  Give those caffeine, say, and you will
get widely different results.  Ignore that variable and you will get an
average of no difference.

Another is diagnostic criteria:  the way such things as ADD or ADHD are
diagnosed is way too widely variable, and so studies are not comparable.

I think most of us know people who have been helped by Ritalin - I do - my
granddaughter for one.  But it's not going to help everyone you give it to
if you are not very careful in your selection​ of your sample.

Classic study:  a group was given a memory task and half were tested an
hour later, and half 24 hours later.  There was no difference in memory.
Then the group was split into introvert and extrovert and lo and behold,
the extroverts remembered better an hour later, and the introverts a day
later.  But toss all the data in one pot and you find out nothing.

bill w

>
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