Adderall abuse in college students

Psychostimulants, including medications used to treat AD/HD, cocaine, and methamphetamine (speed), increase alertness and energy, elevate mood, improve task performance, and decrease fatigue, sleep, and appetite whether someone has AD/HD or not. When used in the typical doses used to treat AD/HD in someone who is healthy (e.g. without cardiac problems) stimulants are relatively safe and usually well-tolerated, and without long-term side effects.

If someone tolerates a couple of cups of coffee or a latte, they will probably tolerate stimulant medications. When used in high doses, especially when snorted or injected creating a rapid increase in brain blood levels, people experience euphoria but also anxiety, an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, insomnia, irritability, sometimes psychotic behavior, and often dependence.

Stimulants have been used for hundreds of years. Plantation owners in South America gave their workers leaves from the coca plant to chew on to increase stamina. During WW II, pilots were given amphetamines to fight fatigue on long missions. Truck drivers often use amphetamines to stay awake for long hours. In the past they were used as diet pills. Today psychostimulants are primarily used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD.

Chronic abuse of amphetamines can lead to physical dependence, and abrupt withdrawal of amphetamines in someone who is dependent is often associated with sedation and decreased energy, an increased appetite and weight gain, and sometimes severe depression and thoughts of suicide.

Medications generally don't create problems when they are taken for their intended use. For example, someone with an anxiety disorder such as panic disorder rarely misuses antianxiety medications such as Valium or Xanax. Someone who is "worried about everything" tends to be worried about medications and tends to take less than, rather than more than, the prescribed dose. People without an anxiety disorder might use Xanax to deal with stress of everyday life in the same way some people use alcohol and marijuana, which often leads to overuse and dependence. The same holds true for amphetamines and other stimulants.

People with ADHD rarely abuse their medication, and don't like feeling overstimulated from too high of a dose any more than they enjoy the jitteriness from too much caffeine. However, people who use amphetamines for the "high," to increase wakefulness and increase stamina, or to decrease appetite, often continue to use these drugs, often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effects, and develop a drug problem.

Although there have been hundreds of studies involving thousands of subjects on ADHD and stimulants in children and adolescents, there are almost no studies on college students. However, it is not uncommon for students without AD/HD to misuse amphetamines to decrease their need for sleep, to decrease fatigue when studying for exams, and to increase mental alertness. Amphetamines are Class II controlled drugs, and their use by someone without a prescription is considered no different than purchasing cocaine or speed from the streets. A student who gives a few Adderall tablets to a friend, or sells a few tablets from his prescription is considered the same as if he were a drug dealer on the streats.

The question isn't whether a dose of Adderall will help someone without ADHD to have more energy, mental alertness, and stamina to study for exams, but whether the risk is worth the benefits. If it were me, I'd rather have a couple of latte's to stay awake and alert.

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, Dealing with Substance Abuse

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