چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background:Primary care physicians are gate keepers to the medical system having a key role in giving
information and prescribing drugs to their patients. In this respect they are involved in claims of patients/clients for
pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement (CE). Therefore, we studied the knowledge of primary care physicians
about CE and their attitudes toward prescribing CE drugs to healthy subjects.
Methods:A self-report paper-and-pencil questionnaire and case vignettes describing a hypothetical CE drug were
sent out to all 2,753 registered primary care physicians in Rhineland Palatine, Germany. 832, i.e. 30.2% filled in the
questionnaire anonymously.
Results:96.0% of all participating physicians had already heard about CE. However, only 5.3% stated to be very
familiar with this subject and 43.5% judged themselves as being not familiar with CE. 7.0% had been asked by their
clients to prescribe a drug for CE during the last week, 19.0% during the last month, and 40.8% during the last year.
The comfort level to prescribe CE drugs was very low and significantly lower than to prescribe sildenafil (Viagra®).
Comfort level was mainly affected by the age of the client asking for prescription of CE drugs, followed by the
availability of non-pharmacological alternatives, fear of misuse of the prescribed drug by the client and the missing
indication of prescribing a drug.
Conclusions:Although a relatively high proportion of primary care physicians have been asked by their clients to
prescribe CE drugs, only a small proportion are well informed about the possibilities of CE. Since physicians are gate
keepers to the medical system and have a key role regarding a drugs’ prescription, objective information should be
made available to physicians about biological, ethical and social consequences of CE use.