Conditions: Expectancy Versus Pharmacotherapy Effect of Adderall
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Enrollment: 4
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The purpose of this balanced-placebo design study is to pilot a larger study to further explore the current evidence that stimulant medications are not cognitive enhancers, despite this rampant belief in young adults. While the lack of cognitive enhancement from stimulant medication has been documented in prior research, this study is the first to utilize neuroimaging technology to examine brain regions activated during neurocognitive tasks when participants believe they have been administered stimulant medication or placebo.

Detailed description:
This is a 2 X 2 within subjects, balanced placebo design and all participants will experience each of the four conditions during four sequential weeks. Medication administered (Adderall vs. placebo) is crossed with instructional set (truth vs. deception) and participants' performance on neurocognitive tasks is compared across these groups. For example, participants are either given stimulant medication or placebo, and are either accurately told or inaccurately told that they received stimulant medication or placebo. Neuroimaging is being utilized to investigate whether participants' expectations regarding the benefits of stimulant medication affects their performance on neurocognitive tasks. The hypothesis of the study is that participants' expectations regarding stimulant medication will affect their performance on neurocognitive tasks, rather than the actual effect of the medication.

Arms:
arm 1: Participants will be told they are receiving Adderall and will actually be administered Adderall. arm 2: Participants will be told they are receiving placebo and will actually be administered placebo. arm 3: Participants will be told they are receiving Adderall and will actually be administered placebo. arm 4: Participants will be told they are receiving placebo and will actually be administered Adderall.

Interventions: intervention 1: Adderall intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Participants will be administered Adderall intervention 2: Participants will be administered placebo

Protocol document:
Prot_001.pdf: