7 Things You Need to Know About Adderall
A new study shows just how many college kids are using the ADHD drug. Who’s popping the pills, and how safe are they? A cheat sheet.
Around college campuses these days, it seems that exams and amphetamines go in hand in hand.
A recent study from Brigham Young University mined over 200,000 tweets from college students, discovering mentions of the prescription drug Adderall peaked near the end of the fall semester—to three times the average rate. The findings support the common knowledge that all-night cram sessions very often begin with a little help from what High Times calls “America’s Favorite Amphetamine.”
Since its initial release in 1996, prescriptions for Adderall have more than tripled. Of course, many students using Adderall never get a prescription at all. And many who do have a prescription faked their symptoms. Just last year, the demand for the drug—originally meant to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy—was so high that patients were turned away from their local pharmacies and the DEA eventually had to increase the drug makers’ annual amphetamine allotment to combat the shortage.