Background: Pharmaceutical neuroenhancer consumption in college students is a rather unknown phenomenon in Europe and particularly in France, where surprisingly only one study was conducted in 1988.
Aim: Our objective is to assess prevalence and motivations for licit (use inside medical indication) and illicit pharmaceutical neuroenhancer consumption (tablet form) in a non-selected French sample of Medicine and Pharmacology students.
Subjects and methods: A validated questionnaire was send to French sample of Medicine and Pharmacology students using email. The questionnaire investigate motives for use of pharmaceutical licit (vitamin C and caffeine tablets) and illicit (methylphenidate, amphetamines, modafinil, piracetam).
Results: Among 206 undergraduate students, 139 students (67.4%) declared to have consumed at least one cognitive enhancer in the past 12 months. Twelve students (8.6% of cognitive enhancers users and 5.8% of our total sample) used illicit pharmaceutical neuroenhancer. The motivations were first to improve their academic performances, second to improve their wakefulness/ vigilance, and third to improve their attention/concentration.
Conclusions: Neuroenhancement is a widespread means of using pharmaceutical drugs in French as well as in US college campuses. Despites some limitations, these preliminary results highlight the need to boost the interest of professionals for the neuroenhancement issue in French and European students.