Schools and universities may need to test students sitting exams for brain-improving drugs.
The Academy of Medical Sciences said drugs for diseases such as Alzheimer’s were being used be healthy people to boost alertness and memory.
The experts said if it became more of an issue, urine drug tests might be needed.
But they added brain science technology also held he key to more effective addiction and mental illness drugs.
The academy set up a working group in 2006 led by Cambridge University neuroscience expert Gabriel Horn after look at psychoactive drugs.
It said future drugs had huge potential, thanks to greater understanding of the workings of the brain.
For example, research has identified that many addictive drugs and some behavioral addictions such as gambling “hijack” neural circuits in a particular region of the brain.
Meanwhile, genes were identified that make the brain vulnerable to mental illness.
But the experts said these breakthrough had, as yet, led to limited progress in drug treatment.
The group’s report aid vaccines could be developed to neutralize addiction, pointing to the work currently being done on a jab for smoking as evidence that is was possible.
The team also turned its attention to drugs that improved brain performance, so-called cognitive enhancers.
They pointed out brain enhancers, such as caffeine, had been used for a long time.
But they warned there was anecdotal evidence drugs such as Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer’s, were also being used by otherwise healthy people to boost alertness and memory.
Horn said regulation might be needed, adding: “We see similarities in the future use of cognition enhancers with the current use of performance enhancing drugs in sport.