Health Communication: Abuse Of Cognitive Enhancement Drugs (Term Paper Sample)

Health Communication
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Health Communication
Introduction
The society today is witnessing increasing cases of non-medical use of pharmaceuticals, primarily regarded as drug abuse. In the majority of the cases, users have turned into drug abuse of prescribed medication to make them feel high or alleviate processes such as sleep, resulting in the use of heroin and associated drugs. Users of these drugs were mainly regarded as narcotic users and comprised of unprofessional people with limited success in life leading to their consequent abuse of drugs. However, this is changing today, with the emergence of cognitive enhancing drugs, with the users of the drugs, often compared to caffeine or painkillers, often professions like medicine creating confusion on the abuse of the drugs. Through this, it is clear that lack of a precise definition and understanding of the drug and their overall effects on the body means the society cannot understand the repercussions of cognitive enhancers and only speculate the motivation behind extensive government restriction on their use. In this paper, I, therefore, set to explore the use of cognitive enhancers in the society, prevalence and factors determining their use, ethical and other effects associated with cognitive enhancement drugs.
Abuse of cognitive enhancement drugs
Prescription drug abuse, which is defined as the use of prescription drugs for reasons other than those prescribed for by a qualified healthcare professional, is a growing health problem in the world. In America, more than 48 million people above the age of 12 years have used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, the classes of drugs ranging from opioids to stimulants or central nervous system depressants. Abuse of prescription stimulants, in particular, the use of prescription stimulants for non-medical purposes is on the rise, with a survey on adolescents and young youth population in North America showing the rate to range between 5 percent and 35 percent (Racine & Forlini, 2010). Drugs such as Modafinil, Ritalin, Donepezil, and other medications used for the treatment of people with cognitive ravages such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the most abused as their development aims at improving the mental state and capabilities of the sick people. Their ability to enhance cognition not only in the people who have Alzheimer or dementia but also to healthy individuals contribute to the increased cases of abuse.
Moreover, randomized tests on Modanifil had been initiated in the military and shown to improve performance, notably the simulator performance of helicopter pilots. Furthermore, not only do these drugs have the capacity to enhance recall and maintain wakefulness, but some also can improve executive function during goals oriented problem solving (Mehlman, 2004). Although no extensive studies have been carried out to ascertain these assumptions and personal testimonies, people are actively seeking out the drugs to improve their cognitive functioning, disregarding the extensive government regulations and purported side effects warning on the abuse of these drugs. This may also be because the use of drugs to enhance cognitive function is not a new case as caffeine has been used as a stimulant for many years, and people consuming it in large dosage have shown signs of improved functioning, a fact that is paralleled to the new class of amphetamines. The increasing cases of abuse are however a cause of alarm given the drugs have not been certified for use in enhancing cognitive capacity, and also as the extensive research on diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease is bound to lead to an increased amount of these drugs in the market and consequently increased negative effect cases.
Medial, ethical, legal and social concerns are associated with abuse of cognitive enhancement medications. Just like abuse of other medications, their use may be accompanied by deleterious side effects in some individuals including toxicity, psychological or physical dependence on the same. Lack of data on these products is, however, concerning, this limiting the understanding of the possible effects of the drugs. With the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requiring all manufacturers to provide data on the drugs and their safety levels, some manufacturers seek to obtain approval of the sale of their products by claiming they are for a given non-medical purposes while instead, they end up being abused as cognitive enhancers (Mehlman, 2004). For example, Allergan was allowed by the FDA to market Botox but omitted detail on a labelling on the use of its product on the perpetuated use in the elimination of glabellar lines.
The law allows physicians to prescribe a drug approved for one purpose for use in any other capacity. This has allowed many types of medication to be applied for off-label nontherapeutic purposes, including for the enhancement of cognitive ability. With no efficacy or safety data on these products, their use exposes the people to unknown medical side effects, and with the condition of the regulatory protocols, their data cannot be easily obtained. It is this lack of availability of data that further exacerbate the medical effects of this class of drugs as they may be present and persistent in the individuals but the abusers may not be aware of them, confusing these with other complications.
The government through the drug regulatory bodies have failed to curb the increasing rate of abuse of cognitive enhancing drugs because of the overlapping scenarios, lack of clearly defined measures allowing abusers and physicians to continue applying the medications. For example, a physician may be liable to be charged if the patient incurs an injury from the prescribed off-label drug, but it may prove impossible for the judge to ascertain that the physician was aware of the dangerous effects of the drug before administration. This is primarily because a lack of data on the drug would mean the physician was also not aware of the dangers posed by the drug, and it was above his ability to determine the probability of causing harm. The manufacturer can also not be held liable for such an off-label case as the law illustrates that a drug is only regarded as unsafe if it were unsafe for every group of patients
Ethical issues on using the product.
Although the uncertainty of the negative effects of the drugs trends among the people, they are unmoved by the potential dangers associated with abuse of cognitive enhancing drugs. Enhanced use of these drugs especially in sports to enhance the performance of an athlete, and in the military during combat insinuate there is likely to be an increase in their use in future, regardless of there being enough evidence on their effect to the body or not. Their use has also been recorded in the medical field, with surgeons exposed to high workloads using them to reduce fatigue and promote concentration while working (Franke et al., 2013; Larriviere, Williams, Rizzo, & Bonnie, 2009). Performance enhancing capability of the drugs has also been tapped in other fields with employees today using them to improve their functionality and consequently their input in a firm. With the drugs associated with enhanced cognitive capacity, schools under pressure to perform better on standardized tests or parents may distribute the cognitive enhancement drugs to the student to improve their performance. In this way, the people may feel cornered and forced to use the drugs, therefore meaning any government initiatives to restrict or prohibit their use may have insignificant results and thereby exposing people not only to the medical effects but also to the social impact of the drugs (Vrecko, 2013). Ultimately these practices may push more and more people into using the drugs, leading to a scenario whereby the people have a heightened functionality but ...