Student abuse of Adderall and Ritalin isn’t a new problem. What have been deemed the “good-grade pills” have long been providing college campuses with the fuel to get through all-nighters. But, according to The New York Times, secret addiction to prescription stimulants has trickled down to high-school students.
Ritalin, Focalin, Concerta, Vynanse, Adderall—they all, while calming people with A.D.H.D., provide those without the disorder with a jolt of energy and tunnel-like focus. Since 2007, the number of prescriptions for A.D.H.D. medications dispensed to people ages 10-19 has increased by 26 percent, to almost 21 million yearly (the Times).
Doctors and teenagers from more than 15 schools across the nation, with noted high academic standards, estimated that the portion of students who take stimulants as a study aid ranges from 15 to 40 percent.
While Adderall has been dubbed the “good-grade pill” (the Times) its marketing potential doesn’t stop at study aid. The drug can be, and is, mixed with alcohol to increase its effects.
The story isn’t alien to me, and I think you would be hard pressed to find a high school senior who doesn’t know someone who is addicted to prescription stimulants, someone who took them to take the SAT, to suppress appetite, or who has abused Adderall or Ritalin him or herself.
Adderall can lead to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, memory lapse, aggression, severe depression, mood swings, and, when mixed with alcohol or other drugs, its effects can be dangerous and uncontrollable. Ritalin and Adderall have also been alleged as gateway drugs to cocaine and heroine.
Those are all very real consequences, but a list of risks and side effects hasn’t, historically, hindered recreational drug use, and it won’t be enough to stop academic abuse of prescription stimulants either.
The disorder, which is characterized by severe inattention and impulsivity, is claimed to be an increasingly common psychiatric diagnosis among American youth.
About 9.5 percent of Americans ages 4 to 17 were ruled to have the disorder in 2007. That is 5.4 million children, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reported prevalence of the disorder has been unwavering in its rise for more than a decade, and while some doctors are glad that the disease is gaining recognition, others fear that the diagnosis, and the drugs used to treat it, are being given out too loosely.
The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies these medications as Schedule II Controlled Substances because they are addictive. While the long-term effects of extended use are not fully understood, it is thought that young people can become dependent on the medication long after they present any A.D.H.D. symptoms.
The increase in diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder is alarming, and it begs the question of whether the disease is actually rising at such a steep pace or if the standards by which doctors diagnose have changed.
I would argue that pressure from parents for their child to earn an A.D.H.D. diagnosis is a very real contributor to the rise in prescriptions being issued.
Recreational drug use isn’t a new crossroad, but the rate of occurrence that prescription stimulants are being used to face academic pressure arguably is. Academic fairness in the face of prescription drug use is an issue being called into question for schools across the country and for the College Board—that is a new crossroads being forged by my generation, and it is a new ethical and health challenge that we now have to address.
