The Rise of ‘Smart Drugs’--Cerebral Stimulation or Brainless Pursuit? : Remedies: A raft of dietary supplements are being promoted as intelligence boosters. Some physicians say they could be dangerous.

NEW YORK —  At the end of “The Wizard of Oz,” the Scarecrow discovers that he has the brain he wanted. He is able to reel off a complicated mathematical equation after simply being handed a diploma.

Would that it were so easy.

Well, how would you like to get smarter merely by popping a pill? Or by knocking back a fruit-flavored drink with a name such as “IQ Booster”?

So-called “smart drugs” and nutrients--usually a mixture of vitamins, amino acids, herbs and assorted pharmaceuticals--are gaining more and more devotees attracted by the prospect of ingestible intelligence.

Smart drugs fall in a gray area with the Food and Drug Administration, and some scientists have posed troubling questions about them.

The idea of improving brainpower the effortless way has captivated an odd amalgam of believers: computer hackers transfixed by the idea of artificial intelligence, professionals with demanding jobs, “granolas” who want to enhance their mind and their bodies with herbs and vitamins and, to a lesser extent, kids simply looking for new kicks.

John Morgenthaler, co-author of “Smart Drugs and Nutrients,” says that this is an idea whose time has come.

“A corporation may be structured so that employees must compete intellectually for promotions and raises. . . . We believe that more and more business people and scholars are looking for the kind of ‘edge’ that athletes get from science,” he writes with his fellow author, Dr. Ward Dean, medical director of the Center for Bio-Gerontology in Pensacola, Fla.

The assumption behind smart drugs is that the brain begins to deteriorate after the age of 20 or so, and the decline is accelerated, presumably, by factors such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and--sorry, java junkies--even coffee.

The effects of this decline can be subtle: Who hasn’t misplaced their keys or forgotten a phone number or wandered into a room and forgotten what they were about to do?

Smart drugs and nutrients--which come in pill, powder or liquid form--are touted as bolstering the neurotransmitters that convey messages between nerve cells in the brain, presumably to help you remember where you put your keys.

Many of the drugs can be obtained legally in this country with a doctor’s prescription, but anyone can order them by mail--without prescriptions--from companies in Switzerland and England, or purchase them over the counter in Mexico. A month’s supply ranges in cost from about $12 to more than $30, depending on the drug.

“Smart drugs and smart nutrients are not things that get you high,” Morgenthaler said. “If someone is used to recreational drugs and if they start using smart drugs, they are going to be disappointed. Smart drugs are like vitamins: If used properly and added into a daily regimen, you won’t notice it for several weeks.”

The book written by Morgenthaler and Dean, a quasi-technical guide to obtaining drugs both here and abroad, has sold more than 75,000 copies since it was first published in 1990.

It describes what smart drugs supposedly do: improve alertness, mental energy and concentration; build stamina for concentrating; increase the ability to memorize; alleviate depression and improve overall health and sexual performance.

“I’m not over-inflating the claims,” Morgenthaler said by telephone from San Francisco. “These drugs are not going to double your intelligence. What we’re looking at is a few percentage points in your intelligence. . . . We are talking about an average increase of 4 or 5 points.”

While some doctors emphatically say that smart drugs simply do not work, others warn of evidence suggesting that they could have tragic consequences for some users.

“Smart Drugs and Nutrients” states at the outset that anyone interested in using the drugs should work with a doctor. It even offers a telephone number to help readers find one near them. But the book also gives specific dosages and methods of obtaining the drugs without prescriptions.

All this troubles Dr. Floyd Bloom, chairman of the department of neuropharmacology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

“I don’t think you could print what I would call it,” Bloom said of the book. “It has to do with what cows do in a field. . . . It’s not science.”

Of vasopressin, for example, an anti-diuretic hormone used to treat diabetes, Morgenthaler and Dean wrote: “A whiff of vasopressin can transform stimulant burnout experience in about 10 seconds.”

Taking vasopressin could be dangerous to people with kidney problems or high blood pressure, Bloom said. In their book, Dean and Morgenthaler warn only that “it should be used cautiously in cases of hypertension or epilepsy.”

Bloom said studies suggest some of the drugs might cause “neuronal death,” or “lots of little strokes.”

“There is no basis that any of these nutrients will take a normal person and make him or her smarter,” said Dr. Richard Wurtman, a professor of neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the school’s research hospital.

“This doesn’t mean that future research might not demonstrate such effects,” Wurtman said. “We won’t know until the research is done, and then confirmed by lots of other scientists.”

Wurtman also worries about serious side effects. “Some of the compounds can be very damaging to the liver,” he said.

The FDA allows importing drugs on an individual basis if they are for life-threatening diseases such as cancer, AIDS or Alzheimer’s. It doesn’t, however, if the drugs are for “cognitive enhancement,” a use the agency doesn’t recognize as valid.

“None of the claims for smart drugs have been subjected to testing in controlled clinical trials--the standard regularly accepted by health officials and researchers,” the FDA’s Mike Shaffer said. He called “Smart Drugs and Nutrients” a “blend of facts and unproven claims.”

“At this time, no drugs or other products have been approved by the FDA to improve memory or intelligence,” Shaffer said.

Still, Morgenthaler, a 32-year-old with a background in computer science and psychology, is enthusiastic about drugs like Hydergine, Piracetam and Dilantin, a class of drugs he calls “nootropics,” coined from a Greek word that means “acting on the mind.”

Hydergine, an extract of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye, is promoted as preventing damage to brain cells from insufficient oxygen and even reversing brain damage.

Hydergine has been used to treat Alzheimer’s patients with mixed results. Some swear by it, but a report published in 1990 in the New England Journal of Medicine said there was no difference between Alzheimer’s patients who took Hydergine and those who took placebos. Hydergine is also part of Morgenthaler’s daily regime.

Dilantin, commonly prescribed for epilepsy, is touted as a drug that improves intelligence, concentration and learning.

Piracetam supposedly “wakes up your brain,” promoting the flow of information between the left and right hemispheres.

The FDA has started cracking down on the distribution of smart drugs by alerting customs inspectors to incoming shipments, a policy Morgenthaler contends might keep people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s from obtaining drugs they desperately need.

No injury has been reported to the FDA as a result of someone taking smart drugs, but the agency is concerned about how they interact with other medications, Shaffer said.

Morgenthaler said the drugs’ sudden popularity comes as a result of the aging of that monolithic demographic group, the baby boomers.

“There’s a lot more interest in diseases like Alzheimer’s,” he said. “It goes along with the aging population. Baby boomers are 30-plus, and are now cognizant of the fact that they are aging. They are noticing their memory is not as sharp as it was. And in the proper tradition of the baby boomers, they are interested in using drugs to fix it.”