With finals just around the corner many students may be finding it difficult to stay awake and concentrate long enough to properly study. A studying trick that has become popular amongst college students is to take Adderall, a medication prescribed to people with ADHD. While this medication may help with concentration, it can cause serious health problems when taken by someone without a prescription.
“I have problems focusing on one thing or my attention isn’t held long enough that I can understand whats going on”
U of A student, Rachel Risley, has been taking Adderall for a few months now, but she’s not taking it illegally.
“I underwent like five hours of testing and then it got back to my family doctor who prescribed it to me.”
According to an article from ABC News its estimated that one in five students have abused Adderall. Many of which do not have a legal prescription.
“I garuntee you any college student, especially those who live in dorms or live in houses will say somebody is walking up and down the halls saying anybody got any Adderall, I need to pull an all-nighter”
Psychologist Dr. Thomas Terry Lawson has been counseling patients with ADHD for over 17 years. He’s become familiar with Adderall and the effects it has when taken.
“It will help people who don’t have ADD focus and concentrate too. The people who should take it are those who meet a diagnostic criteria”
According to Dr. Lawson people who take Adderall without being properly diagnosed and prescribed, run the risk of facing serious health problems.
“The biggest one would be it could kill them. There have been a lot of studies on what these medications do and if you have a heart anomaly, say from birth you have a structural defect in your heart and that heart is already stressed, and you stimulate that heart, then you could die”
“I think it is a problem but, I feel like it is very over looked. So, I don’t know, its just very easy to get ahold of.”
Studies have also shown that adderall when taken with alcohol can lead to alcoholism later in life. It has also been known to lead to other drug abuse.