“They were spending more effort, but their performance was not going up,” says Peter Bossaerts, a professor of economics at the University of Cambridge, and a co-author of the paper.įor people without ADHD, 'taking these medicines may motivate you to perform better, but the end result is not better,' says Asim Shah, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. In a recent study, published in the journal Science Advances, participants without an ADHD diagnosis were given the medications Ritalin, Adderall, Provigil or a placebo, after which they were asked to solve a complex problem, one that involved calculating the weights and values of items to put in a knapsack with limited space.Īs the researchers showed, although participants worked much harder to solve the problem after taking a dose of ADHD medication, compared to taking a placebo, the accuracy of their attempts decreased.

'People have the false idea that these are cognitive enhancers, that it doesn’t matter whether you have a diagnosis or not, that this is going to improve your performance,' says Cesar Soutullo, a professor of psychiatry at UTHealth Houston, who specializes in treating ADHD. Whether it’s taking Ritalin to cram for a test, or Adderall to manage working a night shift, these medications have acquired a reputation as 'smart drugs,' capable of helping people perform better at complicated tasks, even when they don’t have ADHD, a perception that has persisted in spite of a lack of evidence.

Adderall and Ritalin, medications used to manage symptoms of attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, have long been considered study aids for people without ADHD.

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