Abstract

GONCALVES, Cristiana de Siqueira  and  PEDRO, Rosa Maria Leite Ribeiro. “Smart Drugs?”: Mapping the controversies on the use of Ritalin® for cognitive enhancement. Psicol. Conoc. Soc. [online]. 2018, vol.8, n.2, pp.53-67. ISSN 1688-7026.  https://doi.org/10.26864/pcs.v8.n2.5.

Ritalin® consumption for cognitive enhancement has been increasing in Brazil and in the world, attracting the attention of several scholars who have been discussing the ethical issues involved in this consumption, called off-label, which still carry many controversies. This article presents some controversies regarding the risks and effects of Ritalin consumption for the purpose of cognitive enhancement, as well as the expectations regarding the future of this consumption. To do so, a survey was conducted in which psychiatrists, pharmaceutical industry propagandists and consumers of these drugs were interviewed. The results point to the centrality of medical support to consumption, which converges to the concepts of medicalization and pharmaceuticalization, used to characterized contemporary society; and also to the prevalence of performance over risk, in line with current values.

Keywords : Ritalin; Biotechnology; Psychotropic medications; Cartography of controversies.

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