How smart are smart drugs?

摘要

Cognitive decline, and in particular memory loss, are key features of the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, so it is scarcely surprising that the focus of research aimed at treatment has been on identifying drugs to alleviate or reverse this decline. But once such drugs are available, might they not also be more broadly useful? If mild cognitive decline is a fact of life for many of us over the age of about 50 years, as some maintain, perhaps we should all be taking the pills, much as many now take statins and aspirin? And how about students revising for exams, or businessmen wishing to gain a competitive edge? This, essentially, is the case for cognitive enhancers or nootropics, known more colloquially as smart drugs.