Adderall: the study drug?

Dylan Stoll | Health Editor

Featured image courtesy of Jordan Chu, Multimedia Editor

We’ve all felt the pressure and anxiety associated with a difficult test or exam, but how we deal with that pressure is up to us. Some choose to study alone, while others may study in groups; some prefer a healthier diet when studying, while others opt for easy-to-eat fast foods.

With the plethora of methods to enhance one’s learning capacity available, it can be an overwhelming experience to determine what is best for you. For some students, that decision is made as easy as popping a pill.

The pill in question is Adderall. If you’ve heard of this drug, you more than likely know it as a prescription medication used by those diagnosed with ADHD, a condition that affects one’s ability to maintain attention and control one’s impulses. One such individual diagnosed with ADHD, a senior professional writing student who prefers to be referred to as M, explains how important Adderall is in his day-to-day experience.

“Because of my ADD, it helps with every aspect of my life. With it I can set aside all the mental fog and menial problems and actually fully apply myself to what I’m doing.“ For people like M, Adderall works by counteracting these difficult symptoms, providing much needed relief. But for those without ADHD, the drug can enhance their ability to focus even further, and can even produce a euphoric feeling.

Now, Adderall may seem like the perfect study enhancer, but it cannot be such without its serious side effects. If you become a regular user, for example, you will develop a tolerance and you will require higher and higher doses. Furthermore, if you decide to stop using Adderall after consistent usage, you will experience a comedown similar to that of cocaine or other similar stimulants.

To make matters worse, the reason the comedown is so similar to illegal stimulants is because Adderall is a stimulant itself — in fact, it is almost identical in chemical structure to meth, another stimulant (albeit an illegal one).

Interestingly, illegal methamphetamine is often counterintuitively used by bankers or lawyers, not recreationally, but to enhance their focus and productivity, much like what Adderall is used for. Of course, this is no coincidence.

Adderall is actually the parent drug of illegal methamphetamine. Despite this close relationship, methamphetamines are much more toxic, specifically due to their ability to pass the blood-brain barrier and damage brain cells directly. Studies have shown that if you have been diagnosed with ADHD and you do take Adderall, you will see an improvement in your focus and your interpersonal relational abilities. Meth, on the other hand, has shown to produce the opposite effect when used regularly.

But, is it that serious? How many students are actually using Adderall to study? Studies have determined that approximately one in every three students are using Adderall as a study enhancer. Akhilesh Sawant, a biology student at York, says that he considered Adderall, but chose instead the much more accessible Red Bull energy drinks as a study enhancer. “During my first semester I had like 40 to 45 cans of Red Bull over four months.” says Sawant. “I can’t study for more than 30 minutes at a time.”

If you are considering taking Adderall to focus yourself, it is advised that you speak to a medical doctor before doing so. Taking any drug, be it illegal or not, will change your body chemistry; whether or not that change is for the positive, is entirely dependent upon whether or not the drug you are taking is the right drug for you.