Employees are resorting to extreme measures to work for longer hours. It was found that some workers are taking a drug that the military usually uses to stay awake for long periods of time.
Employees are reportedly putting their health at risk by taking a narcolepsy prescription drug called Modafinil. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, billable hours and performance ratings are pressuring these employees to work longer hours and sacrifice their sleep. Some workers guilty of resorting to this are people working in law firms, hospitals and financial markets.
Ian Hickie, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre, said Modafinil keeps users awake without drastic effects. However, this can only be done for a small period of time before a person's mood, behavior and sleep-wake cycle collapse. Hickie said turning people into "24-hour functioning machines" can endanger their health, the news outlet reported.
Modafinil may be originally intended for narcoleptic patients so they stay awake, but pilots, military members and surgeons are also using the drug to increase their alertness while they're doing their duties. Last year, around 1.4 million prescriptions were issued for Modafinil and drugs for ADHD management like Adderall and Ritalin.
Are Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs Smart?
Stimulant drugs like Modafinil are making employees work harder and longer in billable hours, so some people believe that the drug is making them smarter. Carl Hart, a professor at the departments of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University, said Modafinil makes people productive and more focused, but it definitely doesn't make them smarter. Workplace culture can also be contributing to the increasing trend of people resorting to cognitive-enhancing drugs.
Scientists believe that cognitive-enhancing drugs are promising as long as they are regulated properly, Newswatch reported. Regulators are urging pharmaceuticals to conduct research about whether cognitive-enhancing drugs have long-term consequences to a person's health.
Students Resorting To Cognitive-enhancing Drugs
Around 20 percent of Ivy League students admitted that they have used cognitive-enhancing drugs due to the pressure on their academic performance, Harvard Business Review wrote. In 2008 the magazine Nature found that out of 1,400 respondents from 60 countries, one in five have used cognitive-enhancing drugs for non-medical reasons, mainly to sharpen their memory and focus more on the task they need to accomplish.
Modafinil's legal status differs in each country. In the U.K., Modafinil can be legally obtained even without a prescription, but that isn't the case in the U.S. You can learn more about Modafinil on Drugs.com.
