ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2020
Pharmacological Human Enhancement: An Overview of the Looming Bioethical and Regulatory Challenges.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Amphetamines in child medicine: a review of ClinicalTrials.gov.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Cognitive and Mood Effects of a Soluble Mango Leaf Extract (ZynamitePharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Intranasal Drug Delivery in Neuropharmacology: Advances in Brain-Targeted Therapies and Bioethical Challenges.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Ritual to relief: ethical frontiers in repurposing psychoactive substances.CNS spectrums · 2025Review
- Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement Among International Medical Students: Assessing Study Habits as a Novel Factor.Medical science educator · 2024Article
- Alcohol, flexible behavior, and the prefrontal cortex: Functional changes underlying impaired cognitive flexibility.Neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Study Investigating the Efficacy of a Whole Coffee Cherry Extract and Phosphatidylserine Formulation on Cognitive Performance of Healthy Adults with Self-Perceived Memory Problems.Neurology and therapy · 2023Article
- 'Beyond' Human Enhancement - Taking the Developing Country's Perspective Seriously.Asian bioethics review · 2022Article
- Review
- Acceptability of Neuroscientific Interventions in Education.Science and engineering ethics · 2021Article
- Effects of Appearance- and Performance-Enhancing Drugs on Personality Traits.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Review
- New Psychoactive Substances: Evolution in the Exchange of Information and Innovative Legal Responses in the European Union.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Review
- Neuroenhancement as Instrumental Drug Use: Putting the Debate in a Different Frame.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cognitive enhancement, a rather broad-ranging principle, can be achieved in various ways: healthy eating and consistent physical exercise can lead to long-term improvements in many cognitive domains; commonplace stimulants such as caffeine, on the other hand, temporarily raise levels of alertness, attentiveness, and concentration; sedative substances are also used as an indirect form of enhancement to relax before an exam or an important meeting. Such approaches raise no ethical issue. Nonetheless, clinical research has led to the off-label use of drugs called nootropics or "smart drugs", which can, under certain conditions, elicit some degree of cognition-improving effects: methylphenidate and modafinil can enhance working memory and concentration in healthy individuals, although the significance and effectiveness of such applications are dubious. Such "cognitive enhancement" methods, however, do raise multiple ethical issues, and their contentious nature has caused bioethical authorities to lay out opinions and recommendations meant to regulate their use. Most notably, the Italian Committee on Bioethics has extensively dealt with the spread of nootropics, which resulted in the Italian Code of Medical Ethics including "cognitive enhancement" drugs and their prescription by doctors as critical points, along with cosmetic surgery (the latest version of the Code, updated in December 2017, deals with the two separately, in Article 76 and 76 BIS). The United States Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues broadened the scope of cognitive enhancement techniques so as to include neural modifiers, i.e. mechanisms of brain and nervous system change: a much wider array of interventions, technologies, behaviors, and environmental conditions that may potentially affect several aspects of the human brain and nervous system. The potential of neuroscience to profoundly reshape society is nothing short of mind-blowing.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.