Word: ritalin
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...idea that stimulants like caffeine (or Ritalin or even something stronger like cocaine) can help you sit still and pay attention seems counterintuitive at first. But that surprising fact lies at the heart of Rapport's work: stimulants augment your working, or short-term, memory, where information is stored temporarily and used to carry out deliberate tasks like, say, solving a challenging math problem. ADHD kids have a hard time with working memory because they lack adequate cortical arousal, and Rapport believes that their squirms and fidgets help stimulate that arousal...
When I asked Rapport whether there's a cure other than breaking down instructions, his answer was a bit depressing: no. ADHD is incurable. Drugs like Ritalin are a common answer for controlling the condition, which affects about 3% to 5% of children, but Rapport notes that they have proven to be only a limited solution. In the short term, they can facilitate a child's ability to read - undoubtedly a crucial benefit - but Rapport says longitudinal studies have failed to show that Ritalin or other psychostimulants have consistent long-term behavioral effects. (Even if they did, another question would...
Winnie-the-Pooh, the sequel: Tigger on Ritalin, Eeyore on Prozac, Pooh gets gastric-bypass surgery...
Although recreational stimulant use can be addictive - about 10% to 20% of people who use amphetamines to get high (particularly if they snort, smoke or inject) will continue to use, despite negative consequences - addiction rates are much lower when drugs like Ritalin and Adderall are prescribed for ADHD. It's not clear whether the pattern of addiction under medical supervision for enhancement would follow the former or the latter - or whether it would even meet the bar for addiction. Medically speaking, without the element of harm, regular drug use - or even dependence - alone doesn't qualify as addiction...
...normal women and men found that they were more likely to choose to delay gratification and receive a larger monetary reward when given amphetamines than settle for a smaller amount of money immediately. Improvements in memory and cognitive control have been reported in multiple studies, mainly using Ritalin and amphetamines...