[derstander]

> Hospitals are chalk-full of surgeons, doctors, and nurses that are all overworked, burned out, and half-awake.

A friend, who switched from electrical engineering to medicine, told me that the medical residency program in the US was essentially molded by a doctor who was a cocaine addict; seemingly a lot of his students were, too. Maybe it’s a lot easier to work ridiculously long hours when you’re hopped up on coke.

The (admittedly limited) looking I did into the topic suggests that there’s at least a kernel of truth to that story — if not more.

You can look for yourself: the doctor’s name was William Stewart Halsted.

Tongue-in-cheek, but maybe the ADHD medications that doctors and academics often abuse today aren’t as efficacious as good old fashioned cocaine in keeping people working for 80+ hours a week.

To be fair, I don’t think cocaine was illegal during Halsted’s time, though he was in and out of treatment for that and, later, morphine addiction.

[hirvi74]

> maybe the ADHD medications that doctors and academics often abuse today aren’t as efficacious as good old fashioned cocaine in keeping people working for 80+ hours

Well, I have ADHD and take those meds. They can absolutely work like cocaine in that regard, but I have never intentionally used them like that. Those meds would have to be used very judiciously because tolerance would mitigate that effect quiet quickly.

[derstander]

Oh yeah — I definitely understand that some people need ADHD meds to function normally: my partner is one of them, too. We joke during acute shortages that it must be exam season at the local colleges. But of course I know there are chronic shortage issues as well that aren’t simply explained by students wanting a quick boost. I’m mostly poking at people that don’t need it using it to augment their focus.

One thing that I wasn’t aware of until I happened upon a blurb somewhere is that Adderall is harder to get in many other countries than in the US (and seemingly impossible/illegal in a few).