Many college students are taking stimulant medications designed to help manage attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms — focus in particular — not because they actually have ADHD, but because these meds are a perceived bonus for the busy student hoping to ace tests and breeze through study sessions.
Thomas E. Brown, director of the Brown Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders in Manhattan Beach, California, says a common reason students do this is because they’ve procrastinated and may need to pull all-nighters. He says kids who don’t have ADHD usually borrow or buy these medications from friends. Also known as “study drugs,” “smart drugs” and “cognitive enhancers,” experts maintain that their misuse isn’t showing signs of slowing.
One study, published in the March 2015 Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, states that “the misuse of stimulant medication among college students is a prevalent and growing problem” ultimately finding that “the rate of stimulant medication misuse among college students was estimated at 17 percent.”
[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health.]
The following year, NBC News reported on students who spoke candidly about taking ADHD meds to help with their studies, stating that it’s becoming a widespread habit occurring in most social circles. The segment even touched on the fact that some student organizations seem to advocate the benefits of taking ADHD medications; the University of Miami’s student newspaper published an opinion piece in 2012 justifying Adderall — or “Sir Adderall” as the author put it — noting that “Adderall is indeed a solution” for students to “boost their drive.”
According to Marcia Lee Taylor, president and CEO of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, such endorsement is an unfortunate sign of the times. “It’s symptomatic of a larger problem in society in which teens and young adults haven’t learned how to cope effectively,” she says, adding that rather than thinking, “What can I take to handle stress?” young adults should instead ask themselves, “What can I do to manage my stress in a healthy way?”
Addiction Risks
“The risk profile in this case is different than with opioids,” says Taylor, who adds that while opioids often understandably draw a great deal of public attention, it’s necessary for parents to be just as aware that prescription stimulant abuse is widespread and “growing in the 12- to 17-year-old population.”
Taylor explains that people who abuse ADHD stimulants may also turn to other drugs to offset the effects of ADHD medications. For example, she says that prescription stimulants may make it harder to fall asleep, so a college student could turn to Valium: “If they do this long enough, it can turn into a roller coaster where they experience high highs and low lows.”
“If someone is using another substance to counter the effects of another,” says Stephanie Sarkis, an author and psychotherapist located in Tampa, Florida, “that’s a tipoff that addiction may be underway.”
“A large part of the risk in this case is that someone is taking a highly controlled, addictive substance prescribed for an illness that’s not diagnosed — that may only temporarily improve concentration — without the oversight from a medical professional,” adds Dr. Stuart Gitlow, past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
[See: 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Counseling.]
Charlotte Lieberman, a 2013 Harvard University graduate and a Brooklyn-based freelance writer who does not have ADHD, says she took Adderall prior to her junior year for a couple of weeks at a time, usually obtaining them from friends who had prescriptions. However, she says the ongoing desire to “feel more high-functioning” in the face of her own self-imposed pressures as a “type-A student incredibly devoted to academics,” caused her to continue the habit — but with much more frequency — throughout her entire junior year.
That year, she regularly took 80 milligrams of Adderall, a significant departure from the 10 milligrams “as needed” per day that was recommended by Harvard Health Services, where she says she received a prescription despite the fact that she didn’t have ADHD. “I went in with the argument that I probably had attention deficit issues and needed Adderall,” she admits, noting the ease with which a person without the disorder can obtain and take stimulant medications.
Gitlow explains that addiction or serious health consequences are unlikely to occur with occasional use. “But the flip side of the coin,” he says, “is that a person may end up doing this more and more.”
Ethical and Legal Risks
The journal Neurology states that “ethical, social, legal, and developmental issues” are involved when it comes to neuroenhancement prescriptions.
Brown, who is also the author of “Outside the Box: Rethinking ADD/ADHD in Children and Adults: A Practical Guide,” says that ethics are a concern. He says the drugs should only be prescribed and taken for their intended use, noting that addiction could occur when “a lot is used and for a long time.”
Sarkis says that the bottom line is that taking these medications for anything other than their intended purpose is illegal. “You can get in trouble for possession, intent to sell or may even face manslaughter charges should the individual it was sold to — who shouldn’t be taking it — injures themselves and dies.”
Furthermore, she notes that misusing ADHD stimulants also makes it harder for people with legitimate needs to obtain the medications.
Fortunately, Lieberman — who wrote about her experience for Cosmopolitan magazine — says she stopped misusing ADHD stimulants at the end of her junior year and hasn’t looked back. “They were a tool to enable me to do things with greater ease,” she says, “but after all the secrecy and feelings of depression that eventually set in, I realized it wasn’t any way to continue living. All I was getting from Adderall was an inflated sense of self-worth that momentarily made me feel superhuman.” Furthermore, she says it only improved her motivation, not her cognitive abilities, something Brown indicates is common; stimulants mostly work to help a person develop the motivation to stay on task, he says.
Mental Health Risks
Sarkis explains that ADHD stimulants are designed to increase dopamine in the brain — a chemical people with the disorder tend to have less of. People taking more than the suggested dose develop high levels of dopamine, which she says “can mimic schizophrenic symptoms,” including auditory hallucinations and a crawling sensation in the skin, known as “formication.”
[See: 10 of the Biggest Health Threats Facing Your Kids This School Year.]
What Parents and Communities Can Do
Taylor calls for parents and communities to educate themselves, talk with children and emphasize reducing stress in a healthy manner.
She’s also an advocate of lessening the high expectations placed on children. “We as a culture have to take our feet off the gas pedal in terms of the pressure we often put on kids; we shouldn’t be driving kids to the point of thinking they need prescription stimulants to cope.”
Sarkis says it’s also important to tackle underlying issues. This may involve devoting more hours to studies instead of going out with friends, switching out of a too-challenging program or even assessing whether a learning disability exists.
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Why It’s Risky for College Kids to Take ADHD Meds to Help Them Study originally appeared on usnews.com
