With grade point averages dropping as quickly as the temperatures while the middle of the semester takes its toll, some students are succumbing to the combined pressures of a heavy workload and active social life, turning to prescription stimulants to help them juggle respons-ibilities.
A Loyola College junior, who wished to remain anonymous, has had four midterms and two 10-page papers due in the past two weeks. With these demands and trying to maintain a social life, this student often turns to Adderall to keep up with work and to reduce the desire for sleep.
"I'm not sure just how prevalent Adderall is on this campus compared to others but it definitely exists, and the pressures of college are the reason," this student said.
Though most admit that users are not the majority campuswide, some students nationwide are feeling the same pressures and are using Adderall to keep them on top of their game.
The amphetamines, Ritalin and Adderall, are used illegally to enhance studying by as many as 20 percent of college students nationwide, according to a study published in The Johns Hopkins News-Letter in November 2002.
According to an article in a 2004 issue of The Johns Hopkins Newsletter, Adderall was first designed 20 years ago as a weight loss medication and found commercial success in 1996 when the Food and Drug Administration approved its use for treating both Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyper-activity Disorder (ADHD).
ADD is characterized by developmentally inappropriate impulsivity and attention span problems and in some cases hyperactivity, in which the patient would be diagnosed with ADHD. These neurobiological disorders affect 3 to 5 percent of school-age children and approx-imately 2 to 4 percent of adults, according to the Children and Adults with ADD and ADHD website.
The site also says that for people who take Adderall as directed for ADD and ADHD the drug is both safe and effective.
However, there is a growing trend on college campuses is not the use of Adderall among students with ADHD or ADD but students undiagnosed with the disorders using it without a prescription.
On college campuses students can purchase Adderall from prescribed students for $5 to $10 per pill.
"A pill can be easy to come by depending on if you know someone with a prescription," said the anonymous student, who takes Adderall to study, write a paper or sometimes continue a night of drinking.
"Sometimes college students are overwhelmed by increased academic responsibility along with a social life; many feel the need to use Adderall to stay on the ball. But if one does this and does not actually have ADHD or ADD, they may feel like they are more focused when in actuality they are not containing any information," said Dr. Allen Butler, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Herbert Medical Group in Eunice, La., who has ADD himself.
"For a person who doesn't have ADD or ADHD, taking Adderall has an opposite effects compared to those who take it and actually have ADD or ADHD," Butler said.
According to Jan Edward Williams, the director of Alcohol and Drug Education and Support Services at Loyola, the problem lies with those who take high doses, which can be dangerous, and those who use it to get high.
"What scares me most about Adderall is that if [the students are] increasing their frequency [of usage], they're increasing their tolerance, and they're not even aware of it," said Christen Menzel the coordinator in the Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention at Southern Methodist University Memorial Health Center, in an SMU University Newspaper article.
Adderall is an amphetamine-like stimulant, according to Williams. It is also in the "same family of stimulants as Ritalin and street drugs such as crystal meth or methamphetamine," according to Menzel. With high doses comes the risk of side effects.
"What we would see for people using high doses is the same thing we would see with other amphetamines, which is brain damage, chronic memory disturbances and chronic depression. Also, other side effects can include high blood pressure, insomnia, heart arrhythmias and stroke," said Dr. Drew Pinsky in an interview on Syracuse, N.Y.'s "News 10 Now."
In 2001, prescriptions for drugs like Adderall increased 15 percent, according to Shire Pharm-aceuticals, the makers of Adderall. This leads some like Butler to suspect that physicians are being careless.
"Any doctor who prescribes Adderall to a person who is not properly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD but merely claims they have it is basically a legalized drug dealer and is abusing their rights as a physician," he said.
As a result of abuse and misuse, there is a concern that Adderall might be taken off the market if precription numbers increase.
"It's sad that it could possibly be taken off the market just because of abuse and that the people who really need it for a true medical reason will not have it for their medical needs," said Mary Harris, a retired registered nurse, who encountered cases of adderall and ritalin abuse when she worked at the Winter Park Memorial Hospital in Winter Park, Fla.
Regardless of how students use the drug or abuse it students should know that taking a drug that is not prescribed to them is abuse and it is illegal, Harris said.
"Adderall isn't the way to get better grades or a way to become more efficient, you just have to learn how to manage your time wisely and to realize that you aren't always going to find it easy to concentrate, but that this in no way means you have ADD or ADHD," Butler said.
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