Shakeel Sadia, Iffat Wajiha, Qamar Ambreen, Butt Fareeha, Ghuman Faiza, Ahsan Mallick Imran, Ur Rehman Anees, Jamshed Shazia
Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dow College of Pharmacy, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.
Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dow College of Pharmacy, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.
Heliyon. 2021 Oct 4;7(10):e08118. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08118. eCollection 2021 Oct.
Cognitive enhancers (CEs) encompass a wide range of drugs, including prescription medications for attention deficit disorders and pharmacological compounds for cognitive enhancement. It is well-documented that the students are the leading cohort of CEs users. Exploring how healthcare professionals perceive the use of CEs for academic accomplishments is significant to understand their encouragement of CE use. Hence, the purpose of the current study was to look at healthcare professionals' attitudes and perceived understanding about the usage of CEs in academic contexts. The study was a quantitative cross-sectional research design conducted in different healthcare and academic settings of Karachi. The respondents were approached either through social media platforms or the official email addresses of their working organizations. Data were collected through a web link of an online questionnaire that included four sections; inquiring about the respondents' demographics characteristics, their knowledge about CEs, their attitudes towards the use and impact of CEs, and their inclination to use a hypothetical prescription-only CE. The response rate of the study was 73.3%. The majority of the respondents negated to permit university students to using CEs for cognitive boost (n = 360, 67.1%), to concentrate (n = 406, 75.7%), to increase vigilance (n = 394, 73.5%) or to mitigate the effects of other medicines (n = 312, 58.2%). The pharmacists were more likely to refute that using CEs by the students is safe (pharmacists 10.8% vs. physicians 8.3%, p=<0.001), beneficial (pharmacists 12.7% vs. physicians 5.3%, p=<0.001), or necessary (pharmacists 17.6% vs. physicians 12.8%, p=<0.001). The major reasons for not encouraging the use of CEs were fear of misuse (n = 510, 95.1%), safety concerns (n = 495, 92.3%), and their consideration for CE as unnecessary medical intervention (n = 441, 82.2%). The findings indicated that overall, respondents have a clear consensus of not letting university students use CEs for cognitive improvement or any other purpose implying that cognitive enhancement is not yet a common or approved medical practice by the healthcare professionals in Pakistan.
认知增强剂（CEs）涵盖了多种药物，包括用于治疗注意力缺陷障碍的处方药以及用于认知增强的药理化合物。有充分记录表明，学生是认知增强剂的主要使用群体。探究医疗保健专业人员如何看待将认知增强剂用于学术成就对于理解他们对认知增强剂使用的鼓励情况具有重要意义。因此，本研究的目的是考察医疗保健专业人员对在学术环境中使用认知增强剂的态度和认知理解。该研究采用定量横断面研究设计，在卡拉奇的不同医疗保健和学术环境中进行。通过社交媒体平台或其工作单位的官方电子邮件地址联系受访者。通过在线问卷的网络链接收集数据，问卷包括四个部分；询问受访者的人口统计学特征、他们对认知增强剂的了解、他们对认知增强剂使用和影响的态度，以及他们使用一种假设的仅凭处方使用的认知增强剂的倾向。该研究的回复率为73.3%。大多数受访者拒绝允许大学生使用认知增强剂来提高认知能力（n = 360，67.1%）、集中注意力（n = 406，75.7%）、提高警觉性（n = 394，73.5%）或减轻其他药物的影响（n = 312，58.2%）。药剂师更有可能反驳学生使用认知增强剂是安全的（药剂师为10.8%，而医生为8.3%，p<0.001）、有益的（药剂师为12.7%，而医生为5.3%，p<0.001）或必要的（药剂师为17.6%，而医生为12.8%，p<0.001）。不鼓励使用认知增强剂的主要原因是担心滥用（n = 510，95.1%）、安全问题（n = 495，92.3%）以及他们认为认知增强剂是不必要的医疗干预（n = 441，82.2%）。研究结果表明，总体而言，受访者明确一致认为不让大学生使用认知增强剂来改善认知或用于任何其他目的，这意味着在巴基斯坦，认知增强尚未成为医疗保健专业人员普遍认可或批准的医疗行为。
