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It is increasingly common for healthy people to seek means to improve their alertness, or to try to get better their performance in some cognitive functions; this with the aim of increasing their performance and productivity in the academic or work environment. Several stimulant drugs have been used for many decades and have recently become very popular especially among young people. However, general practitioners and even specialists are rarely informed of their real benefits or potential adverse effects. This review provides an updated overview of the effects (positive and adverse) of some stimulant drugs that have been used to maintain alertness or improve cognitive performance in healthy subjects. For stimulant drugs, the positive effects improving the subjective symptoms of sleep deprivation are well established. However, the cognitive effects of stimulant drugs are still highly variable and inconsistent, since there are few studies that have been carried out with adequate methodological design. In addition, there are several adverse effects, from mild to severe that can be observed and there is a concern of potential addiction effect to some of them. Some stimulant drugs can improve alertness, but their positive effects improving cognition are not yet fully proven.

Objective: The objective of the study was to know the opinion and prevalence of use of central nervous system stimulant drugs (SDs) in healthy people in open population. Methods: An electronic survey was designed with 11 questions to know the frequency of use of SD, and also questions to explore previous knowledge, opinion about the risks associated with its use and about its regulation, etc. The survey was spread by electronic social networks to persons over 18 years old of any gender. Descriptive analysis and a Chi-square test were done to find associations between variables. Results: A total of 526 surveys were conducted, 271 male participants (51.5%) and 249 female (47.3%). The median of age was 22 years old (range 18-83 years). Median scholarship was 12 years (range 6-20 years). About 49.6% were students. About 75% had prior knowledge about stimulants, 13.6% reported prior use, 26% opined these drugs could be dangerous, and 88% opined that they should be regularized. Finally, ages between 18 and 30 years old and scholarship above high school were associated with the use of SD. Conclusion: There was a frequency of 13.6% of SD use. Most of the respondents are worried about its safety and are in favor of their regularization. Being young with high scholarship was associated with SD use.

Background: Repeated head trauma associated with sports activities can cause subtle cognitive alterations in amateur players, but these are difficult to detect. Objective: The objective of this pilot study was to determine if there is an association between executive functions performance and different sports practice variables in a sample of amateur American football players. Methods: A pilot transversal study with amateur American football male players without previous neurological or psychiatric illnesses, drug abuse, or consumption of psychotropic medications were carried out and evaluated executive functions performance using automated test. In addition, the levels of stress, impulsivity, and symptoms of anxiety and depression were evaluated, as well as multiple variables related to sports practice such as previous concussions, time of sports practice, weekly training time, and position within the game. Results: Fourteen men players were assessed, with an average age of 20.57 (standard deviation [SD] ± 1.61) years, played 7 (50%) in an offensive position, 7 (50%) in defensive position, and 3 (21%) presented previous sport-related brain trauma. The average time of practice football was of 35.07 (SD ± 43.10) months, starting age of football playing 17.71 (SD ± 3.64), and hours of training during the week 5.75 (SD ± 2.83). There was no association between cognitive performance and any sports practice variable, however, the offensive position showed significant association with impairments in the highest span of visual working memory task (β = 0.53, SE = 0.16, p = 0.001). Conclusion: The results suggest that executive tasks with high cognitive demand may reveal alterations in the short term in amateur American football players.