Background: The use of cognitive enhancers (CEs) is becoming increasingly widespread among students, especially in health fields, with significant implications for both academic performance and student well-being. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of CEs among healthcare university students in relationship with stimulant intake, academic progression, and academic anxiety. Material and Methods: The cross-sectional study included 402 students enrolled in medical studies (general medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and physiotherapy). Socio-demographic characteristics, health-related and academic data, lifestyle behaviors, and the consumption of different CEs were collected. The Academic Anxiety Scale was used to evaluate university students’ perceived stressors that contribute to academic anxiety. Data processing analysis was performed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results: The frequency of cognitive compound intake exhibits a positive correlation with the consumption of group B vitamins (r = 0.170, p = 0.001), tea (r = 0.158, p = 0.003), and coffee (r = 0.113, p = 0.031). Lecithin and Ginkgo biloba were significant independent predictors (p < 0.05) of enhanced alertness, memory, and academic performance. The only significant independent predictor of cardiovascular events (palpitations, tachycardia) is caffeine consumption, which increases the risk by nearly three times (OR = 2.96; p = 0.001). In terms of addictive risk, drinking caffeine raises the likelihood of being addicted by 4.78 times (p = 0.014). It has been demonstrated that the probability of using synthetic nootropics (piracetam/cerebrolysin) increases by 1.86 times (OR = 1.86, p = 0.021) as university education progresses (nN= 335). Academic anxiety had a mean score of 23.27 ± 7.38. Unemployed students exhibit markedly elevated anxiety levels compared to employed students. Respondents who justify the use of stimulants by feeling stressed or overwhelmed present the highest levels of academic distress, in contrast to those who use them to combat fatigue or out of curiosity. A large majority (95.0%) do not consider use of CEs as a form of cheating on examinations, and 88.9% are against its prohibition. Conclusions: The findings of this study highlight that many university students in the healthcare field use cognitive stimulants during periods of intellectual overload, with more than 40% of participants utilizing CEs daily or weekly in periods of academic stress. Overload schedule, academic stress, the knowledge about their positive effects, and psychosocial contexts influence consumption.

Background: In contemporary society, marked by rapid transformations in the sphere of communication and social interaction, social networks have gone beyond the role of simple communication platforms, becoming places where identities are formed, cultural norms are negotiated and self-perceptions are shaped. This reality has generated a growing interest in studying the relationship between the digital environment and health behaviors, especially among young people, a social category extremely receptive to visual and normative influences promoted online. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students enrolled in different kinds of faculties and specialties. An online questionnaire was distributed to gather socio-demographic, academic and medical data along with lifestyle and health-related behaviors. Several psychometric instruments were used: Health Behaviour Scale (HBS) to measure various dimensions of health-related actions, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) to screen for addictive or problematic social media use, Social Media Disorder Scale (SMDS) to measure the problematic social media use among adolescents, Body Appreciation Scale–2 (BAS-2) to evaluate measure of one’s acceptance, favorable opinions and respect of their own body, and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to identify the psychological motives behind overeating. Results: More than 70% of students declared that they had their first smartphone before the age of 12 and 65% of students had screentime higher than 3 h per day during the weekdays, with a small increase during the weekends. Women scored higher than men in emotional eating (food consumption in response to negative emotions), and external eating (response to food stimuli in the environment, independent of hunger). Respondents from rural areas showed a significantly lower level of respect and acceptance of their own body and higher risk for Social Media Disorder compared to participants from urban areas. Important statistical correlation has been identified among the variables of the research. Social media addiction was associated with higher emotional eating both directly and indirectly, via lower body appreciation. The analysis also indicated that it does not show a direct relationship with restrictive eating behaviors; rather, its association with restrained eating is fully mediated by the individual’s body appreciation. Conclusions: The use of social platforms is a challenging process, with a great impact on psychological and emotional balance of young people. Even if the study identified a normative use among young people with a high education level, the risks factors should be taken into consideration when dealing with screentime, psychological and mental health and the risk for addiction.

Background: Academic pressure during examination periods is frequently reported alongside irregular lifestyle behaviors. The study aimed to explore the interplay between habitual eating behaviors, sleep quality, and self-reported stimulant use and coping adaptations specifically during examination periods among healthcare university students. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 265 university students (Mage = 22.00, SD = 4.46). Dietary behaviors and sleep quality were assessed using the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), respectively. Behavioral profiles, substance-use patterns, and attitudes toward academic pressure were examined using bivariate analyses, multivariate logistic regression, and TwoStep cluster analysis. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0. Results: A high prevalence of poor sleep quality was observed, with 72.8% (n = 193) of participants meeting the clinical criterion for poor sleep (PSQI > 5.0; M = 7.79 ± 3.53), and high sleep disturbances were significantly associated with smoking, energy drink use, coffee escalation, general dietary supplement utilization, and smart-drug use. Multivariate analysis revealed that poor sleep quality (OR = 1.118, 95% CI [1.022, 1.222]) and younger age (OR = 0.843, 95% CI [0.735, 0.967]) were independently associated with higher odds of energy drink use. A distinct cognitive disconnect was observed in tobacco usage: conventional smoking was negatively associated with self-perceived health (OR = 0.401, 95% CI [0.182, 0.884]), whereas electronic cigarette use showed no significant association. TwoStep cluster analysis identified three distinct student typologies during exams: non-users (32.6%), poly-substance users (34.5%), and OTC supplement/caffeine users (33.0%), with active substance-utilizing profiles displaying significantly worse sleep quality and higher emotional eating. Conclusions: These findings highlight distinct cross-sectional lifestyle and coping patterns among healthcare students, emphasizing the need for targeted institutional interventions that support healthy behavioral adaptations and stress management during academic challenges.

Background: Healthcare university students face disruptive sleep schedules and irregular meals caused by busy schedules, multiple activities, and stressful internships. This study aimed to investigate the complex relationships between sleep quality, psychological eating dimensions (cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating), accommodation, history of diets and late-night food intake, while evaluating the impact of demographic factors such as age, sex, and residential background. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a sample of Romanian healthcare university students (n = 265; 74.3% women). Psychometric evaluation included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21). Sociodemographic data (age, gender, environment and accommodation) and information about diets were collected. Late-night food intake was defined as eating after 21:00. Data processing and analysis were performed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, version 26 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Students exhibit poor global sleep quality, which positively correlated with all TFEQ-R21 subscales. Students with a prior history of following weight-loss diets demonstrated significantly elevated levels of intentional food monitoring and psychological eating disinhibition compared to non-dieters. Urban students feel greater psychological pressure to constantly and consciously control what they eat. Students living in dormitories (Mdn = 2.50, IQR = 1.83) and those living in rented apartments (Mdn = 2.17, IQR = 1.50) reported significantly higher Emotional Eating scores compared to students residing with their parents. Male students demonstrated a substantially higher prevalence of late-night food consumption compared to female students (77.9% vs. 59.4%). Cognitive restraint and female gender protect against nighttime snacking, while uncontrolled eating and poor-quality sleep significantly increase this risk. After adjusting for age, sleep disturbances were positively associated with emotional eating (Path a: B = 0.0967, β = 0.320, p < 0.001, R² = 0.109), which in turn was strongly associated with uncontrolled eating (Path b: B = 0.4621, β = 0.709, p < 0.001). While the model explained 52.16% of the variance in uncontrolled eating, this was driven almost entirely by path b, as the initial contribution of sleep was considerably smaller (Path a: R² = 0.109), yielding a significant standardized indirect association (β = 0.227, 95% BootCI [0.148, 0.309]). Conclusions: Sleep disturbances are linked to uncontrolled eating patterns primarily through their shared indirect association with emotion-driven eating. Prioritizing weight loss over health promotion increases students’ psychological vulnerability.

Anxiety and depressive disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide, yet current treatments remain limited by modest efficacy and restricted accessibility; non-invasive neuromodulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation (tcVNS) have emerged as promising alternatives whose combination may produce complementary clinical effects. Methods: This proof-of-concept pilot study evaluated the feasibility, tolerability, and preliminary clinical effects of a multimodal three-component protocol comprising tDCS and tcVNS delivered alongside supportive psychological counseling in 12 adults (Mage = 54.75 ± 17.47 years) with clinically significant anxiety and depressive symptoms. Participants received 10 consecutive sessions of anodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (2 mA, 30 min) followed by tcVNS with PEMF, with symptoms assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and pre–post comparisons performed via the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: Significant reductions were observed for both outcomes: BAI scores decreased by 52.0% (Z = −3.059, p_exact < 0.001, p_asymp = 0.002, r = 0.883) and BDI scores by 55.9% (Z = −3.059, p_exact < 0.001, p_asymp = 0.002, r = 0.883); the proportion of participants in the minimal BDI-II symptom range rose from 8.3% to 83.3%, and no adverse events were reported. Standard clinical response rates (≥50% score reduction from baseline) were achieved by 50.0% of participants for depression (BDI) and 41.7% for anxiety (BAI), with 25.0% demonstrating a concurrent dual response on both measures. Exploratory profiling and multivariable continuous modeling indicated that higher cumulative improvement was descriptively observed in older participants with greater baseline symptom severity, with baseline anxiety showing the strongest continuous standardized association (β = 0.548, p = 0.104). These are hypothesis-generating observations only. Conclusions: The combined three-component package (tDCS, tcVNS, and concurrent supportive counseling) appears feasible, well tolerated, and associated with pre–post symptom reductions that, in the absence of a control condition, cannot be causally attributed to the intervention, warranting further investigation in adequately powered randomized sham-controlled trials.

Anxiety and depressive disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide, yet current treatments remain limited by modest efficacy and restricted accessibility; non-invasive neuromodulation techniques as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation (tcVNS) have emerged as promising alternatives whose combination may produce synergistic clinical effects. Methods: This proof-of-concept pilot study evaluated the feasibility, tolerability, and preliminary clinical effects of a combined tDCS and tcVNS protocol in 12 adults (Mage = 54.75 ± 17.47 years) with clinically significant anxiety and depressive symptoms; participants received 10 consecutive sessions of anodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (2 mA, 20 min) followed by tcVNS with PEMF, with symptoms assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and pre–post comparisons performed via the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: Significant reductions were observed for both outcomes: BAI scores decreased by 52.0% (Z = −3.059, p < .001, r = .883) and BDI scores by 55.9% (Z = −3.059, p < .001, r = .883); BDI remission rates rose from 8.3% to 83.3%, and no adverse events were reported. Standard clinical response rates (≥ 50% score reduction from baseline) were achieved by 50.0% of participants for depression (BDI) and 41.7% for anxiety (BAI), with 25.0% demonstrating concurrent dual response on both measures. A stratification into distinct response profile revealed that high responders presented with an older age profile (M = 63.33 ± 9.87 years vs. 51.89 ± 18.94 years), more pronounced baseline anxiety (M = 37.67 ± 3.06 vs. 31.67 ± 9.29), and higher baseline depression (M = 24.67 ± 5.51 vs. 21.56 ± 6.35). Conclusion: Combined tDCS and tcVNS appears feasible, well tolerated, and associated with substantial symptom reductions, warranting further investigation in adequately powered randomized sham-controlled trials.