5/6/03 -- Now that many college students are turning to Ritalin to help them study for exams, health professionals are concerned that the trend might expand to high school students.
The drug, prescribed for people with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is sometimes used by youths without those conditions as a recreational drug, but its use for that purpose seems to be declining, researchers report.
On college campuses, however, Ritalin, Adderall, and similar drugs are now replacing coffee and No-Doz for many students to help them get through exam week.
The use of such drugs in colleges is becoming "much more prevalent lately," says Vicki Taliaferro, a health service specialist at the Maryland Department of Education and a member of a statewide ADD/ADHD advisory council.
While there are no studies on the extent to which high school students are using these drugs to help them study, anecdotal evidence suggests they are more popular in suburban schools where students are under more pressure to succeed academically.
The Contra Costa Times reports on an 18-year old with ADD in Lamorinda, Calif., who credits Adderall with helping him raise his D-average grades to a 4.2 GPA. The student admitted selling the pills to his friends for $5 to $10 each to help them study for a test. Selling a prescription drug is illegal.
The Houston Press reports on a freshman at "one of Houston's toniest private high schools" whose grades were slipping. After scoring some Ritalin from a classmate with ADD, she says she "studied for eight hours at a time . . . and actually learned the stuff."
The article tells of another student at a public high school in an outlying Houston suburb who says he and several of his friends used Adderall to boost their concentration. He says it was easy to find a classmate willing to sell the drug -- "Just look for the kid that can't pay attention."
Taliaferro says she's heard from doctors who said youths without ADD or ADHD have asked for prescriptions for Ritalin to help them study.
These drugs can heighten attention, even in people without ADHD, says Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, director of Substance Abuse Services in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
When used at higher than therapeutic dosing or by different routes of administration, such as sniffing, "the medications can cause exaggerations of the usual side effects, such as appetite suppression and insomnia, as well as nervousness, excitability, and some cardiovascular effects," Wilens says. They can also become addictive "at high dosages and by altered routes of administration."
The Drug Enforcement Administration has listed methylphenidate, the generic name for Ritalin, as a Schedule II drug, which means it has a high potential for addiction and abuse.
Timed-release versions of ADD drugs have become more common, which means they are being used less in school, Taliaferro says.
Wilens says the increasing popularity of extended-release drugs like Ritalin LA, Adderall, XR, and Concerta "have really helped to reduce the diversion from ADHD kids to non-ADHD kids because the medication is taken at home only."
Nevertheless, he urges school officials to be aware of the potential for abusing these drugs and watch out for students who might be selling or buying them.