They might need to come out with a new version of that “This is your brain on drugs” ad if a group of scientists get their way. In a paper titled “Towards Responsible Use of Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs by the Healthy” published in Nature, seven scientists from the US and UK advocate the use of brain-enhancing prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin as study and work aids in a manner similar to caffeine. Their Peter Tosh-like solution to “legalize it” aims to make these drugs legal, stopping an illicit trade that, according to the article, is sweeping through college campuses around the world. (more…)

Can college drive you crazy? No more so than everyday life, according to a new survey conducted by Columbia University researchers and published in the American Medical Association’s Archives of General Psychiatry. The survey suggests that nearly 46% of college students aged 19 to 25 and 48% of of non-college adolescents the same age suffer from at least one psychiatric disorder. These shocking results are blunted somewhat when you take into account that alcohol abuse is considered a psychiatric disorder.

According to the study, 20.7% of the 2,100 college students polled suffer from alcohol abuse, while another 17.7% have personality disorders. Those of the same age group who don’t attend college are most likely to suffer from personality disorders (21.6%) and nicotine dependence (20.7%). Not surprisingly, college students were found more likely to abuse alcohol than their non-college peers, who were determined to have a higher risk of drug and nicotine addiction, as well as bipolar disorder. However, college students are much less likely to get treatment for their disorders.