72 lines
3.6 KiB
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72 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition,alt.psychoactives
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I'm not sure, so I've added ALT.PSYCHOACTIVES to the list, since
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they seem to discuss them there.
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Nootropics, from what I can tell, is pretty much an offshoot of pharmacological
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memory research, promoting an emphasis on enhancement of cognitive and
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memory functions rather than prophylaxis or treatment of memory disorders,
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or illumination of memory mechanisms, as most of the original research was
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doing years back when Vasopressin and Piracetam were among the only
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compounds in this category, and there was no such commonly used term
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as Nootropics.
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_Some_ popularly labelled 'smart' chemicals are more nutritional in nature,
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often based on the notion that dietary precursors for some neurotransmitters or
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neuromodulators can beneficically influence brain chemistry. This has
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some legitimate theoretical basis, as with Dr. Wurtman's research at MIT,
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but seems to have little reliable clinical support as anything you could use
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practicall to improve your performance at complex mental tasks.
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While dietary variations can influence levels of brain signalling chemicals,
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the nutritional supplements commonly seen seem to effect mental function at
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best haphazardly when at all.
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_Pharmaceutical_ nootopics (as opposed to the dietary supplements)
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sometimes have definite neurological effects, but conclusions about the
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significance of those effects in enhancing human mental functions appears
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very premature.
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There is a good review of 'Smart Drugs' by Steven Rose in the April 17,1993
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issue of _New_Scientist_. He surveys the medical literature, evaluates
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its quality, and draws some tentative general conclusions about the value
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of these drugs. His overall conclusion is that someone looking for
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mental performance enhancement would be better advised to seek it
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in ancient mnemonic techniques than modern pharmaceuticals.
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The same issue also has an article on the general subject, including the
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consumer industry around 'Smart' chemicals.
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A popular introductory text on drug actions in the brain; Cooper, Bloom, and
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Roth's _Biochemical_Basis_of_Neuropharmacology_, devotes a section at the end
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to the question "Are there natural memory drugs ?"
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The 6th edition (1991) states ...
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"Back in the third edition, in our last outing onto the sea of
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memory modulators, we mentioned the growing literature on the ability
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of natural hormones such as vasopressin and adrenocorticotropin
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(ACTH), as well as 'endocrinologically inert' fragments derived
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from them, either to repair learning deficiencies in hypophysectomized
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rats or to delay or accelerate the extinction of a previously learned
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performance.
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"Unfortunately, as pathways containing these peptides were more clearly
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defined in their projections to targets other than the posterior
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pituitary, and as the known barriers to diffusion of these peptides
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from the blood stream into the brain were shown to apply to all of
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them, this once promising area became a source of contention. However,
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this body of research remains an important case study for scholars of
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the neuropharmacology of behavior."
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They later add, after a discussion of the voluminous research on
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vasopressin in particular ...
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"Future research will probably establish the superficiality of such
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interpretations as the following : (1) vasopressin acts directly
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on 'memory processes'; (2) vasopressin can be an aversive
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hormone than when given at non-physiological doses arouses the
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animal who then learns better. We await eagerly the answers to this
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mind-drug-behavior puzzle, but they may not be found in the next
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edition, either."
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