While many students use prescription drugs such as Adderall for medical reasons, others misuse these drugs to stay up late and create improved sensory perception, allowing them to cram for midterms or finish papers.
Adderall is a stimulant prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Andy Thomson, a psychologist for University Counseling and Psychological Services, the drug is "an amphetamine that actively stimulates neural transmitters in the brain that are associated with focusing attention. It enhances concentration, focus and overall activity."
It is for exactly these effects that the drug is prescribed to people with ADHD, because they "are more easily distracted, and Adderall helps them focus," CAPS psychiatrist Amy Alson explained. On the other hand, "people who take Adderall and don't need stimulants become more focused, but also very anxious. It's a paradoxical effect."
In addition to sensory perception, the drug also produces insomnia as a side effect, Thomson said.
"Students have always used things to stay up and do work," Alson mentioned, noting specifically, "Adderall misuse is not something new."
Alson suggested increasing academic pressure as a cause for students to seek out these performance-enhancing drugs in recent years.
"Students are doing whatever they can to improve academic performance; however, the risks aren't as well recognized," she said.
An anonymous University student who was willing to share her experience with Adderall misuse said she was not aware of the health effects before she used the drug.
"I knew it wasn't 100-percent healthy, but I didn't look into it," she said.
The student said she misused this prescription medicine for both educational and social purposes, but more for the former.
"I never took much dosage-wise," she said. "But I would take enough to be able to stay awake."
She said she would obtain the Adderall from a friend who actually had a prescription for the drug and then would either take it orally or snort it.
"Snorting makes it kick in quicker," she said. "I think [the drug] helps, but it's also a placebo effect... It just makes you feel like you can concentrate more."
She said she hasn't misused Adderall much, but she would probably misuse it again if she had a lot of work to do.
"I don't believe that it's really necessary, but sometimes it feels like it is," she said, explaining that at times it seemed she had so much work to do that it would be impossible to complete it without falling asleep in the process.
Like this student, other students are so concerned with getting their work finished that they disregard the potential consequences of their actions.
"Adderall, like all medications, has side effects," CAPS Psychologist Nickie Spears said, citing high blood pressure, high heart rate and even cardiac arrest as possible side effects of Adderall use and misuse.
"These are acceptable risks for people with ADHD," she explained, "However, these side effects are dangerous for people who don't know about the risks and make an uninformed decision to take Adderall."
Alson said seizures are another possible side effect of taking Adderall.
"We don't see a lot of seizures, but people don't know about it," she said.
Thomson also noted that amphetamine overdose can lead to death. He described the relationship between amphetamine poisoning and paranoid schizophrenia, saying "if a person carries genes for paranoid schizophrenia, then the amphetamine in Adderall can release these genes and cause psychosis."
Because of these side effects of Adderall use, Student Health "closely monitor[s] students' Adderall prescriptions," Alson explained, adding, "If a student loses their prescription more than once, we'll know."
Although the use of Adderall is safe to treat students with a disorder, the misuse of prescription drugs to stay awake and improve sensory perception is more dangerous than many students know.
"Even if they think they're not doing drugs, they are doing drugs," Alson said.
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