Chemically modified minds: Substance use for cognitive enhancement

Abstract

This innovative edited collection brings together leading international academics to explore, from a psychosocial perspective, the use of various non-prescription and prescription substances showing the complex reasons behind their adoption, and the ways in which they are misused, and links between use and cognitive enhancement. While studies on drug use to date have examined drug use in the context of sporting performance, addiction and recreational use there has been little work which explores their wider misuse to improve cognitive enhancement.

With medical sociology and social psychology at its core, this important volume shows the complex reasons behind the misuse of various substances, how these are connected to contemporary desire for increased mental performance, and why the potential health risks and possibly harmful side effects do not act as deterrents.