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Tests Get Me Nervous: A Case of Pharmacological Enhancement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

O.W. Muquebil Ali Al Shaban Rodriguez ,
S. Ocio León ,
M. Gómez Simón ,
M.J. Hernández González ,
E. Álvarez de Morales Gómez-Moreno ,
J.R. López Fernández ,
D.F. Frías Ortiz ,
A. Barrio Nespereira ,
G. Gutiérrez Vázquez  and
L. Pérez Gómez
...Show all authors
O.W. Muquebil Ali Al Shaban Rodriguez*
Affiliation:
Centro de Salud Mental Mieres, Psichiatry, Mieres del Camino, Spain
S. Ocio León
Affiliation:
Centro de Salud Mental Mieres, Psichiatry, Mieres del Camino, Spain
M. Gómez Simón
Affiliation:
Centro de Salud Mental Mieres, Psycology, Mieres del Camino, Spain
M.J. Hernández González
Affiliation:
Centro de Salud Mental Mieres, Psichiatry, Mieres del Camino, Spain
E. Álvarez de Morales Gómez-Moreno
Affiliation:
CSM Puerta de la Villa, Psichiatry, Gijón, Spain
J.R. López Fernández
Affiliation:
Hospital Vital Álvarez-Buylla, Psichiatry, Mieres del Camino, Spain
D.F. Frías Ortiz
Affiliation:
Hospital de Jove, Psichiatry, Gijón, Spain
A. Barrio Nespereira
Affiliation:
CSM La Calzada, Psycology, Gijón, Spain
G. Gutiérrez Vázquez
Affiliation:
CSM El Quirinal, Psichiatry, Avilés, Spain
L. Pérez Gómez
Affiliation:
CSM El Coto, Psichiatry, Gijón, Spain
L. Tuñón Gorgojo
Affiliation:
Centro de Salud Mieres Sur, Nursing, Mieres del Camino, Spain
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The use of drugs to improve cognitive performance (pharmacological enhancement) is a practice that increases in frequency, especially in individuals with a high degree of academic education, university students, and workforce with high responsibilities. Legal substances such as alcohol and caffeine, prescription drugs such as modafinil or methylphenidate and some illegal drugs such as amphetamines or cannabis are utilized to improve cognitive performance, maintain wakefulness, or induce sleep. Perception of risk is low in many cases. Internet has facilitated the illicit access to prescription drugs with astonishing ease.

Objective and methods

We want to exemplify through a clinical case, how the access to some of these substances through internet is very easy, and how, in this case, the use of Modafinil (drug indicated for narcolepsy) with the objective of maintaining academic performance aggravates symptoms of anxiety in a 22-year universitary patient.

Results

Exposition of clinical case in the poster.

Conclusions

The use of substances (“smart drugs”) presents risks for both physical and psychological health that sometimes are not perceived by the user. It is surprising that a highly educated individual has taken Modafinil without researching for a deep understanding of the side effects of the drug.

Internet access of regulated substances that should only be prescribed by a physician to be used on very concrete symptoms is extremely easy. In the case of the Modafinil, it is possible to access its purchase by simply searching the words “purchase/buy Modafinil” in any internet browser.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
EV940
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 33 , Issue S1: Abstracts of the 24th European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2016 , pp. S520
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2016
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