Adderall a Miracle Drug to Students But Highly Addictive Nature Ignored

Another issue I want to talk about with kids going back to school is adderall use. Adderall is a drug widely reported to increase alertness, concentration and overall cognitive performance, while decreasing fatigue – but it is also a drug widely abused across college and high school campuses. During exam time and throughout the year, students are consuming this highly addictive drug in order to study, as well as in many cases to lose weight due to the loss of appetite realized when adderall is taken.

It’s prescribed on a regular basis to treat ADHD and ADD, but adderall is being sold and handed out in mass quantities to individuals with no prescriptions. The problem is getting worse and the harmful effects and addictive nature of this drug ignored.

Adderall is over prescribed to all populations, by general psychiatrists and even addiction psychiatrists, without informed consent or understanding by the psychiatrist of dependency risks. Many people with addictions and eating disorders seek out psychiatrists who will give them adderall prescriptions with little to no therapy, diagnostic detail or consideration of non-medication alternatives.

The problem has been researched by The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, specifically with college aged kids, who in a 2009 survey found that, “full-time college students aged 18 to 22 were twice as likely as their counterparts who were not full-time college students to have used adderall non-medically in the past year.”

I believe the best medication for attention deficit disorder is ongoing, consistent and loving therapeutic attention. Due diligence must be done by professionals to decrease the amount of these prescriptions handed out, and subsequently decrease the amount of abuse widely seen on college and high school campuses. And education to students on the drug’s addictive nature is key to stopping the severity of abuse being seen.