Remember that drink I invented yesterday? (oc)

[u/DaveKellett]

COME for the acrid taste, but STAY for the lack of caffeine!

[u/captainfarthing]

Nope there are lots of people with ADHD who don't get the opposite effect from caffeine, it's not diagnostic of ADHD. We don't even know if it's more likely to happen to people with ADHD, it's all based on anecdotal evidence.

[u/Hundkexx → u/captainfarthing]

I'm more inclined to believe that there's a lot of misdiagnosis and a lot of those people are in fact neurotypical. The reaction people with ADHD gets out of amphetamines etc just can't be faked.

[u/captainfarthing → u/Hundkexx]

I have ADHD, my meds help, caffeine doesn't. It keeps me awake and makes me anxious but doesn't help me focus. I quit caffeine so I could sleep properly.

I honestly don't believe it helps people focus or be productive as much as they think, IMO most of the boost they feel is withdrawal being alleviated and placebo effect from how it's been marketed. The placebo effect worked on me, I still drink coffee but it's decaf now.

[u/Alvendam → u/captainfarthing]

IMO most of the boost they feel is withdrawal being alleviated and placebo effect from how it's been marketed.

It's not. Caffeine's main effects on neurochemistry are rather simple. It blocks adenosine receptors and lowers melatonin secretion- the sleepy neurotransmitters. In turn it leads to elevated dopamine and glutamate - both having an excitatory effect on the CNS.

[u/MrWeirdoFace → u/Alvendam]

Hmmm, glutamates... so if I eat some ramen with coffee I can get a super boost?

Edit. This is the second time in a very short period that my posts have doubled for some reason.

[u/Alvendam → u/MrWeirdoFace]

No. Dietary glutamate is metabolised and used for other things in your body, besides it does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier. Actually the way the human body is made, the other way is more likely - removal of glutamate from the brain - towards the bloodstream.

Mind you I'm a layman in biology and chemistry and my understanding of this is rather basic.

[u/MrWeirdoFace → u/Alvendam]

As a layman's layman, Doh!

[u/captainfarthing → u/Alvendam]

I said most, not all. I'm skeptical that it has as much of an effect as people think.

I'd like to see a study where people try to guess how they'll perform on a test with vs. without caffeine and then get tested before and after taking either caffeine or a placebo.

[u/Alvendam → u/captainfarthing]

And "most" is what I disagreed with. It cannot be "most of the boost". It is one of very few CNS stimulants that directly make you less drowsy, instead of pumping you full of excitatory neurotransmitters. Being less drowsy directly correlates to being more focused. You can safely lay your skepticism to rest, based simply on its mechanism of action.

In any case, its objective and subjective effects have been more than widely studied. With thousands of papers published since it's been discovered.