Will “Academic Doping” Lead to Urine Testing of Exam Takers?
Oct 5th, 2009 • Posted in: News Article in medical-ethics journal raises provocative questions about use of brain-boosting drugs as academic performance-enhancers
LONDON
A noted psychologist last week warned about the dangers of “academic doping,” raising speculation about whether star students someday will face drug tests in the same manner as today’s athletes.
The U.K. Guardian reports that Vince Cakic of the University of Sydney sparked the discussion in an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, writing that drugs that enhance mental performance are very attractive to students and virtually impossible to ban. Such drugs include those typically prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder, but which are used “off-label” by healthy students hoping to boost performance on exams and papers.
“High school and university are the primary competitive spheres of many people’s lives and ones that have significant bearing upon their lives, in terms of both career opportunities and future earning capacity,” he wrote, according to the U.K. Press Association.
“The pressure to succeed academically is very real,” Cakic continued, “and in a climate in which high-stakes public examinations have increased demand for private tuition, it is likely that all avenues for performance enhancement will be exhausted.”
Recent studies have shown that the use of off-label drugs, dubbed “nootropics,” is widespread among students in many areas of the world.
Cakic contends that urine testing of exam students is one possible method of curbing abuse, but he warns that the current erratic and ineffective system of sports drug testing shows that enforcement will be difficult at best, reports the London Daily Mail.
According to a report from the London Daily Telegraph, Cakic also rejects the notion that prohibiting performance-enhancing brain drugs would “level the playing field” because “there never was an even playing field to begin with.” He likens banning the drugs “to prohibiting private tuition, which also increases academic performance while exacerbating educational inequalities between social classes.”
Cakic recommends instead that academia study policies and approaches to make the use of such drugs safer.
Sources: Guardian, Oct. 2 — U.K. Press Association, Oct. 1 — Telegraph, Oct. 1 — Daily Mail, Oct. 1.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 22 — Related Newsline story, June 1 — Related Newsline story, May 11 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 16 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 15, 2008.
Print This Story
Email This Story
