College students who abuse medications for attention-deficit disorder typically don?t know about serious side effects, including heart attacks, aggressive or suicidal behavior, paranoia and hallucinations, researchers say.
Two-thirds of the students who abuse the stimulants Adderall or Ritalin, both prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, get the drugs free from a family member or friend, the University of Maryland?s Center for Substance Abuse Research reported in a new study.
“When college students use their friends? drugs, their friends aren?t likely to give medical examinations that come with medications,” said Sean McCabe, the study?s lead researcher and professor at the University of Michigan.
Taking the drugs without medical supervision can lead to serious illness, addiction and even death, McCabe said.
Nationwide, about 3 percent of college students abuse stimulant medications to help them study or for “recreational purposes,” the study found.
“They don?t benefit from clinical assessments, medical follow-ups or get the medical documents that accompany the medications,” McCabe said.
Tony Oesterling?s experience bears that out.
Oesterling, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Maryland, College Park, said he has used Adderall for the past three years to keep him awake and help him concentrate, but did not know of the health risks. He said he gets his pills from friends and drug dealers.
“I know the more you use it, the more you will need it to concentrate,” he said, “but I?m not sure about the effects on the brain.”
Oesterlingsaid he was “definitely more irritable after a long day of using Adderall” to help him study. So he smokes marijuana to lessen the irritability, he said, and to make himself hungry and help him sleep.
The study also found that more than 80 percent of abusers of prescription stimulants had used marijuana in the past year, compared with about 30 percent of non-stimulant users.
“If individuals are likely to use prescription medications without a prescription from a doctor, then they are more likely to use other drugs,” McCabe said.
Stimulants have a high abuse potential because 40 percent to 50 percent of users have reported crushing and snorting pills, which increases the potential for addiction, McCabe said.
At higher doses ? 100 milligrams or more ? Adderall can produce psychiatric symptoms such as schizophrenia. But at levels prescribed for ADHD, side effects include insomnia, weight loss and lack of appetite, said Dr. Ryan Williams, a child psychiatrist in Tulsa, Okla.
In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration forced drug manufacturers to place warnings on all Adderall and Ritalin prescriptions.
