Cosmetic pharmacology

Cosmetic pharmacology refers to the use of drugs to improve cognition in normal healthy individuals, for the purpose of enhancement rather than treatment of a formal pathology. Some case reports with the antidepressant Prozac indicated that patients seemed "better than well," and authors hypothesized that this effect might be observed in individuals not afflicted with psychiatric disorders.[citation needed] Following these case reports much controversy arose over the veracity and ethics of the cosmetic use of these antidepressants.[citation needed].

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Opponents of cosmetic pharmacology state that such drug use is unethical and dangerous, and that the concept of cosmetic pharmacology is a manifestation of naive consumerism resulting from pharmaceutical marketing campaigns. Proponents state that drugs used to treat many pathologies are just as dangerous, it is an individual's (rather than government's, or physician's) decision whether to use a drug for cosmetic purposes, and there are few if any legitimate ethical qualms with cosmetic pharmacology.

Scientific articles via PubMed

• Cosmetic neurology: the controversy over enhancing movement, mentation, and mood.
• Can there be a 'cosmetic' psychopharmacology? Prozac unplugged: the search for an ontologically distinct cosmetic psychopharmacology.