By 
Abuse of prescription medication among students is rising, but does it help?
An amazing talk was presented by Dr. Wilson Compton at the CHADD Conference, showing that high school students go off to college and a surprising thing happens.
These are students who do not have ADHD.
The ‘normal’ ones. The ‘neurotypicals.’ The majority.
Their abuse of almost every kind of drug actually declines when they are in college or university.
With one exception. Their abuse of stimulant medication goes up.
Whereas if high school students don’t go off to college, but enter the workforce, the military, or whatever, they abuse stimulant medications less.
And they abuse the other drugs more. Marijuana, alcohol, pain killers, opiates, etc..
Make of that what you will.
It’ll help me study
What was not surprising was that many of the college students who are not ADHD and were abusing ADHD medication, are doing so to get better grades.
Cause they think it will help them focus, learn better, be more alert.
(And by the way, “abusing” means taking it without a prescription, or not taking it the way it’s prescribed, as in extra doses, etc..)
But Doctor Compton outlined what the studies have shown. Yes, these non-ADHD kids who take ADHD medication feel more alert and feel they’ve done better, their cognition improves, and so on.
But the double-blind scientific studies reveal that the stimulant medications have no effect on a Non-ADHD student’s academic performance.
Whereas ADHD medications have a definite, even dramatic impact on the academic performance of ADHD kids.
In other words, if you don’t have ADHD, buying or stealing someone else’s pills is not going to help you. Even though you’ll feel more alert. More energized.
That’s just one small part of a big presentation. In a day with dozens of presentations.
Amazing stuff.
Best,
Rick
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Am I the only one who is anger about university students who do not have ADD taking ADD medicatiom? It is my tax dollars that helps to fund these dishonest ignorant students. These students are taking the place of students who are not lying about themselves or stealing medication that others really need.
Wayne (I wish there were scholarships for students with ADD) McFarlane
I’m not sure which studies are being referred to, but I’m feel the conclusions drawn here are biased. There are indeed studies that show students who abuse ADHD meds have lower GPAs. It’s easy to think this shows ADHD meds don’t improve GPA, but the studies are correlational. It’s possible that students who are already excelling academically have good study habits and don’t need to seek extra help to get A’s. Students who are failing may turn to medications as a last-ditch effort to make sure they get above the C- line.
It’s probably true that changing your study habits and developing good time management skills is a better way of improving your grades than taking pills. However, Adderall and Vyvanse have helped me in the past. I was prescribed Adderall in high school under pressure from my mom (I really didn’t want it and felt I didn’t need it, but the doctor was totally willing to just throw a prescription our way) and I found it helped me get my school work done. It would some days make me irritable, though, and I got off of it. One day in college, I ended up having a programming project that I needed done, and I tried using Adderall. Not only did I get it done, but I understood and learned the system easily, a system that I had struggled with for weeks. That new understanding stayed with me even after the drug wore off. It was a highly positive experience.
I have used Vyvanse before, too, and it certainly did improve my performance and concentration. It helped me get things done. Some days in college, that’s all you need.
I feel that while these meds won’t replace being a good student, they are definitely helpful. If used in the right way, they are useful tools, like caffeine. We should examine these drugs, as well as others, as more than a fix for something that’s broken.
mcfarlane: ADHD med abusers usually buy or are given it by people with legitimate prescriptions. Sometimes in college, extra cash is more important in the moment than the benefits of that day’s pills. It’s rarely stolen.
alant
Saling ADHD prescription medication to other students is ignorant, dishonest and Illegal.
Wayne McFarlane
Yes, I’m aware it’s illegal. Whether it’s wrong probably depends on the situation and your personal ethics.
Sadly, that attitude of “I know it’s illegal, but I can justify doing it anyway” is precisely why this problem exists.
And why those who have a legitimate need for ADHD medication, are treated like potential criminals when they try to get a prescription written or filled.
“The situation and your personal ethics” have nothing to do with it.
Yes, this is true. My son does know non-ADHD students who do sell and use on his college campus(usually adderall). However, he says that there is no shortage of drugs or alcohol of any kind, even for the underage set. My son told me that in four years he has never even been approached to share or sell his prescriptions. We always will have to deal with the criminal element on all levels in our society. Maybe the problem is really the expectation we are putting on these kids to excel. In many instances a B is not good enough to get into the right graduate program or insure a spot in the best medical school. Maybe we should talk about the pressures we are putting on these kids to be perfect. Then we might not see so many of them willing to risk their health to gain even the slightest of perceived advantages.
Bammer, I don’t think that attitude is why the problem exists at all. eris was right on in describing the real source of the problem: students feel a lot of pressure to perform academically, and so they take the opportunities they can get to do so. The pressure of finals week, for example, pushes many of the best students to use meds. After all, what are they going to do if they have a test on Monday, two tests on Tuesday, and two more and a final paper on Wednesday, each of them worth 20% of their final grades? They’ll pull all-nighters all week, any way they can.
Another attitude that causes the problem is one demonstrated by people saying the meds make things “unfair” for other students. We train students to view education as competitive, rather than as an improvement of the self. It makes students seek out easy advantages over each other, instead of choosing ways to improve their learning skills. They don’t care about learning, they care about the grades.
Going a little broader in topic, ‘the situation and your personal ethics’ are actually extremely important. American law is always interpreted keeping these in mind. That’s why we have juries to get a consensus of personal ethics, and why punishments vary based on the situation.
It’s just as important to avoid the attitude, “It’s wrong because it’s illegal.” There are many laws that are just plain wrong, and there are many wrong things that are not illegal.
alant
Students or anybody else saling ADHD medication is wrong. There are so many good reasons why the law only allows pharmacist to dispense prescription medication.
When I hear about stimulant abuse among college students it really upsets me.
The two primary reasons is it makes it very difficult for people who are diagnosed with ADD to get their medication at pharmacy and it gives ammunition to those who say ADD is not a real problem.
Stimulant use does not make anyone smarter or easier to learn course material. All night studying is unproductive and it is an excuse for students who do not consistently work throughout the school term. There are exceptions where instructors overload students and create a level of stress that is unacceptable.
Laws don’t stop students from using prescriptions med’s illegally. Anyone that uses prescription drugs without a clinician prescribing a legitimate course of treatment is following a dangerous path.
Clinicians who are not knowledgeable about proper stimulant use and/or ADD are part of the problem. Unfortunately in Canada and the US primary care physicians are writing the majority of the scripts.