Does Adderall make you underachieve?

It’s rare for medical students nowadays to go through training without knowing someone who uses prescription stimulants to study. The ever-popular Adderall and Concerta seem to be omnipresent on college campuses and medical schools, while prescriptions for these medications are suspiciously less common. In environments where success and self-worth is often based on academic achievement, the temptation to succumb to using these pills is high. The temptation is even higher as these drugs have become widely available. While students previously borrowed prescription pills from friends and tried to trick their doctors by reading out DSM criteria for ADHD, there has been an explosion of availability on the Internet, including black market sites that use difficult-to-track digital currency like Bitcoins. Untraceable and discreet, students can order as many as they please. It’s a dirty secret that few people talk about, yet researchers at the Yale Child Study Center found that one-in-five U.S. medical students had used prescription stimulants. This finding has been replicated at a number of allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, with nearly identical results. International studies from France to Iran have shown a similar prevalence among medical students. Reasons for non-medical prescription stimulant use ranged from staying awake on the wards, to studying for exams. The United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE) are particularly stressful for U.S. medical students...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Education Medical school Source Type: blogs