Neuroscientists are developing drugs to help improve cognition among people with dementia and Alzheimer’s, but increasingly these drugs and other cognitive enhancers are being taken by healthy individuals keen to improve their performance. Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, believes it’s time for an open debate about the ethical issues surrounding the use of new types of drugs which could in the future be used to make us all clever, well-behaved and sociable.
Listen now (45minutes)to BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to 4 leading scientists , and which includes a discussion of the ethics of cognitive enhancers
Researchers from the American Headache Society’s Women’s Issues Section Research Consortium found that incidence of childhood maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and neglect, are prevalent in migraine patients. The study also found that migraineurs reporting childhood emotional or physical abuse and/or neglect had a significantly higher number of comorbid pain conditions compared with those without a history of maltreatment. Full findings of the study appear in the January issue of Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, published on behalf of the American Headache Society by Wiley-Blackwell. 