Anybody know where to get this?
- Donepezil is used to improve memory function in Alzheimer's patients
- Children learn skills quickly as their brains go through 'critical periods'
- Researchers found donepezil can revert adult brains to these periods
- It increases the 'elasticity' of the brain making it capable of learning rapidly
- Researchers rewired a visually impaired patient's brain to process images
- The drug works by boosting chemicals in the brain that reduce with age
Also, in a 2003 research (http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14533139):
At entry into the study, poor academic performance and subjective problems with memory and concentration were reported, particularly after amphetamine use (i.e. MDMA and crystal methamphetamine); after donepezil treatment, dramatic increases in memory, concentration and academic achievement were observed.
As a clinical pharmacist all I can say is "lol"
Donepezil is probably one of the most useless drugs in the world. Better off taking sugar pills.
edit: There are a number of issues here I want to address:
1) Just to give some more background, the "study" /u/snoopiedoop referenced is a case report, IE "hey, this one single guy uses a lot of drugs, stopped using drugs, took donepezil and got better!" That tells you absolutely nothing. You have a sample size of n=1.
2) Keep in mind, my background is industry so my perspective is a bit skewed. I'll tell you for a fact we can only reproduce about 20% of the published scientific literature out there. There are probably a mix of reasons, but it is clear that you cannot trust something just because it's peer reviewed. Even if we can reproduce the basic science (ie yes, we can confirm that donepezil improves neuroplasticity) the next question is: so what?
3) Just because you see something in animal or human pre-clinical models doesn't mean the result makes a different clinically. Maybe a 20% increase in neuroplasticity doesn't mean shit because humans are incredibly complex organisms and there are so many interacting forces that there's often no way to say X causes Y. This is why so many drugs that look great on paper fail miserably in phase 1/2 trials.