As I approach the third decade of my life, a great deal of anxiety overwhelms me. Although some consider 30 to be the new 20, I feel my body falling apart. I’ve actually considered buying “spray-on” hair for those spots on my head that refuse to grow hair. Hangovers are much worse than they used to be, causing me to abstain from alcohol entirely. But worst of all, my memory is fading.
This is the third straight year in a row I have forgotten the date of my best friend’s birthday. On multiple occasions I find myself pausing mid-sentence, only to forget the message I was trying to convey. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but it would be nice to take something that could increase my brain power.
Enter the magical pills: Ritalin and Adderall. The popularity of these drugs among college students continues to rise, especially at colleges with more competitive admission standards. Caffeine remains king, but its reign among those seeking higher grades is quickly dwindling.
The new class of stimulants offers seemingly superhuman levels of concentration. But can these drugs really make you smarter? Studies have shown that spatial working memory performance is augmented in healthy volunteers with the greatest improvement occurring in those who have lower baseline memory capacity. As far as long-term memory is concerned, no evidence suggests amphetamines can improve that. Good old repetition of material is still the best way to retain information.
Modafinil, aka Provigil, is yet another pill that allows students to pull all-nighters. The Food and Drug Administration has only approved its use for narcolepsy and sleep apnea, so it’s much more difficult to get a prescription for it than amphetamines. It suppresses the need for sleep, and interestingly enough, it has been used by the U.S. military to keep pilots sharp and alert for 40 hours straight! Although it does not increase attention, many aspects of memory are improved, including verbal working memory, planning performance and the ability to stay on task. A nice selling point for Provigil is that it has virtually no side effects. The increases in blood pressure and heart rate usually seen with amphetamines don’t exist with Provigil use, and it is also not addictive.
New drugs seeking to improve memory target specific mechanisms known to underlie memory formation — for example, ampakine CX516 tinkers with AMPA-type glutamate receptors, which are very important in the formation of long-term memory. A drug was tested in healthy elderly patients — 65- to 75-years-old — and the results showed a two-fold increase in the number of items recalled after five minutes. In young adults, a moderate improvement in memory was seen.
One of the newest classes of drugs improves memory by selectively increasing gene expression in the brain. The target: histone deacetylases (HDACs). HDACs are enzymes that cause DNA to wrap around neighboring proteins tighter. As a result, certain genes stop working. By creating drugs that inhibit HDACs, researchers have been able to activate these genes. When HDAC inhibitors were given to brain-damaged mice, they were able to recall previously lost memories. It is thought that HDAC inhibitors allow genes to be expressed, which can increase the number of connections between brain cells. Thus, in the brain-damaged mice, it is possible that new circuits are being formed, ultimately replacing the faulty ones.
But one downside of the drug is that it affects many enzymes in the brain rather than just a select few. In fact, when a specific HDAC enzyme was inhibited in rodents, a great deal of cell death occurred in the brain, very similar to an Alzheimer’s type picture. The trick then will be for researchers to develop more selective compounds.
Despite the excitement surrounding these brain enhancers, they still cannot help one create a master symphony or help you discover the theory of relativity. Guess you’ll still have to use what your momma gave you.
Ashok is a University Medical student. He can be reached at a.tholpady@cavalierdaily.com.
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