Julian Uzielli Online Editor Carly* is a fourth-year biochemistry student at Western. She has a lot in common with her peers—she lived in residence in her first year, she pays her own tuition by working part-time and collecting student loans to help cover her costs, she works hard and wants to be a doctor one day. And, like a growing number of university students in Canada, she has used the ADHD medication Adderall XR to help her study. It was during the final exam period in her second year, and she had a tough cell biology exam coming up. Faced with myriad distractions—chiefly the beautiful spring weather and Reddit—the decision to take the pill wasn’t hard. “My friend’s brother gave it to him, and he was scared to take it,” she explained. “So I told him I’d take it with him, just to have someone to take it with.” She did a bit of research on the side effects and decided to give it a try. She wasn’t disappointed. Carly said she studied for about eight hours straight that day, and is certain the drug helped her grade on the final. She did better on the exam than she expected—86 per cent—and she’s pretty sure it boosted her mark in the course overall. “Once I started doing work, it was like my brain was just flowing with ideas and information and everything,” she said. Adderall is an amphetamine saltsbased medication designed to treat the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD or ADD. Similar to its medicinal predecessor
Ritalin, which was first made available in 1956, the drug helps stimulate the arousal system of the brain, increasing focus and wakefulness. This makes it an ideal companion for students who need some extra help pulling that all-nighter. Adderall and similar drugs are considered controlled substances under Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act—meaning anyone caught selling the drug could face up to three years in prison. The medication also comes with a host of possible side effects, including fever, cardiac arrhythmia, paranoid delusions and a potential for addiction comparable to cocaine and speed. Despite the dangers, the rate of illegal use of Adderall and other so-called “study drugs” on campuses across North America is rising. A 2011 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal estimated anywhere from five to 35 per cent of Canadian post-secondary students had abused the medication, and many students consider popping a pill—typically sold for about $10—no worse than brewing a pot of coffee to stay up all night and write an essay But for Carly, the effects were markedly different than coffee. “I feel like coffee keeps me awake and alert, and without it I just get really bad headaches,” she said. “With Adderall, it worked kind of different. It just made me focused, whereas coffee just makes me awake.”
Deb Josephson, a physician at Western’s Student Health Services, said patients experiencing side effects from study drugs are common at SHS. Josephson said they come in at least once every exam period, and given the illegal nature of the activity, she speculated the actual number is much higher. Though the rate at which study drugs are used is increasing, their use for cognitive enhancement is nothing new. “I think I’ve been aware of it almost as long as I’ve been in medicine,” Josephson said. She explained a change in the diagnosis practices of ADHD— only formally recognized as a disorder that affects adults in 1978—accounted for the rise in use among students. Accordingly, students regularly go to SHS seeking an Adderall prescription. However, that trend has declined somewhat in recent years, as the clinic has tightened its criteria for prescribing the medication—if doctors at the clinic discover their patients have been sharing their medication, they stop prescribing it. In fact, Adderall may not even work on people who don’t need it, despite the anecdotal evidence. According to both Josephson and the Canadian Medical Association Journal, there is no available scientific evidence showing study drugs to be cognitively helpful to healthy people. So, given the dangerous side effects of Adderall, why aren’t more people aware of them? Where are the awareness campaigns, the activists, the anti-study drug ads and >> see drug use pg.2
* Name has been changed for the sake of anonymity Andrei Calinescu & Naira Ahmed Gazette