Students say that so-called 'smart pills' increase their concentration, focus and short-term memory, but experts worry that use of such drugs has become problematic, the Washington Post reported June 11.

Such misuse of pharmaceuticals like Adderall, Ritalin and Provigil peaks around exam time in colleges and even high schools. A survey of University of Delaware business majors found that 90 percent used such drugs as a study aid during big exams and finals; only about one in four had a legitimate prescription.

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Some students get the drugs free from classmates with legitimate prescriptions, while others buy the pills for $3-5 each. Sales of these have soared in recent years, and a new wave of 'cognitive enhancers' is now being tested for sale in the U.S.

Richard Restak, president of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, says misuse of these drugs has received little attention from police. "This is an entirely different population of people -- from the unmotivated to the super-motivated," Restak said. "['Smart drug'] users may be at the top of the class, instead of the ones hanging around the corners."

Restak added that he could envision use of these drugs increasing in the business world, where employees often face deadline pressures similar to those encountered by students.

Some worry that the pills encourage students (and others) to mistake test-taking ability for intelligence. "I feel that what we call 'intelligence' is almost always 'scholastic skill' -- what it takes to do well on a certain kind of short-answer instrument in a certain kind of Western school," said Harvard researcher Howard Gardner. "Other uses of intellect -- musical competence, facility in the use of one's hands, understanding of other people, sensitivity to distinctions in the natural world, alertness to one's own and others' emotional states, etc. -- are not included in our definitions of intelligence, though I think that they should be.

"Unless performances in these other domains were directly tapped, we'd have no idea of whether 'performance enhancing pills' affect these other forms of intelligence as well."

Nobel Prize winning pharmaceutical researcher Eric R. Kandel was aghast at the idea that students were using drugs based on his work to improve their schoolwork. "That's awful! Why should they be taking drugs? They should just study," he said. "I think this is absurd. What's so terrible about having a 3.9? The idea that character and functioning and intelligence is to be judged by a small difference on an exam -- that's absurd. This is just like Barry Bonds and steroids. Exactly what you want to discourage. These kids are very sensitive. Their brains are still developing. Who knows what might happen?"