ArticleSubstance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy2018
Pharmacological neuroenhancement and the ability to recover from stress - a representative cross-sectional survey among the German population.
Article in Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stimulant abuse as a coping strategy-Forensic and criminal consequences of stimulant abuse for neuroenhancement.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- [Performance-related substance use in everyday life and work].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Review
- "The Most High-Risk People Are Given the Most High-Risk Drugs in the Most High-Risk Way": Experiences of Treating Problematic Over-the-Counter and Prescription-Only Medication Use in Substance Misuse Services.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Population-based estimates of different dosage types of psychedelic use across socio-demographic groups in Germany.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neurobiology and systems biology of stress resilience.Physiological reviews · 2024Review
- Neuroenhancement and mental health in students from four faculties - a cross-sectional questionnaire study.GMS journal for medical education · 2024Article
- College students' momentary stress and prescription drug misuse in daily life: Testing direct links and the moderating roles of global stress and coping.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2023Article
- The Perceived Stress Scale 2&2: a two-factorial German short version of the Perceived Stress Scale.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work and Prescription Drug Misuse-Prospective Evidence from Germany.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Potential risk groups and psychological, psychosocial, and health behavioral predictors of pharmacological neuroenhancement among university students in Germany.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Prevalence of Pharmacological Neuroenhancement Among University Students Before and During the COVID-19-Pandemic: Results of Three Consecutive Cross-Sectional Survey Studies in Germany.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Article
- The relevance of pharmacological neuroenhancement for stress and resilience-A multistudy report.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Prevalence and Correlates of Prescription Drug Misuse in a Nationwide Population Survey in Taiwan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Resilience beyond reductionism: ethical and social dimensions of an emerging concept in the neurosciences.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2021Article
- Just "Like Coffee" or Neuroenhancement by Stimulants?Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Pharmacological Neuroenhancement: Current Aspects of Categorization, Epidemiology, Pharmacology, Drug Development, Ethics, and Future Perspectives.Neural plasticity · 2021Review
- Psychiatric Comorbidity and Stress in Medical Students Using Neuroenhancers.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Article
- Placebo- and Nocebo-Effects in Cognitive Neuroenhancement: When Expectation Shapes Perception.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPharmacological neuroenhancement (PNE) refers to the use of psychoactive substances without doctor's prescription to enhance cognitive performance or to improve mood. Although some studies have reported that drugs for PNE are also being used to cope with stressful life situations, nothing is known about the relationship of PNE and resilience, i.e. the ability to recover from stress. This study aimed at investigating the relationship of PNE and resilience in the first representative population sample.
methodsA cross-sectional survey in a representative sample of 1128 adults (age ≥ 18 yrs.) living in Germany was conducted. The use of PNE and related attitudes, perceptions and behaviours were assessed by structured interviews and self-report questionnaires. Stepwise logistic regression with backward elimination was conducted to identify potential risk factors for PNE use.
resultsLifetime prevalence for the use of stimulating prescription drugs without medical indication was 4.3%, 10.2% for stimulating illicit drugs, 20.3% for mood modulating prescription drugs, and 23.4% for cannabis. Coping with stressful situations was more frequently reported as underlying motive for using stimulant or mood modulating prescription drugs than stimulating illicit drugs or cannabis. The individual perceived stress increased the risk of using stimulating prescription drugs (OR: 2.86; 95% Cl: 1.49-5.46) and the individual ability to recover from stress decreased the risk of using any substance for PNE and especially mood modulating prescription drugs (OR: .62; 95% Cl: .47-.81).
conclusionsThe non-medical use of prescription drugs for PNE appears to be more prevalent in subjects who are less resilient to stress. Tailored resilience interventions that improve the ability to adapt to and recover from stressors may prevent the use of prescription medication for PNE. Further research should disentangle the association between psychological resilience and PNE as well as examine the efficacy of resilience interventions in the prevention of PNE.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.