How Do I Keep My Prescription Stimulant Safe At College?

Discussion Going away to college presents new and exciting opportunities for young adults. It also is an important time for transitioning many adult responsibilities to the young adult too. Keeping safe is important and safety tips for college can be reviewed here. Any medication can be abused. Prescription stimulants are no different. Normally prescription stimulants are used for treatment of attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and treatment resistant depression. They can help increase alertness, attention, and energy, cognition, learning and memory. However for these reasons and because they are easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive, prescription stimulants are commonly abused on college campuses. Side effects of prescription stimulant abuse includes addiction, cardiovascular side effects, withdrawal symptoms (fatigue, sleep problems or depression) and even hostility, paranoia or psychosis. Learning Point While some of the recommendations for safe use of prescription medications in college are specific for controlled substances like stimulants, they are generally true for any medication. Students and their families should consider the following questions: Who will prescribe the medication? Regular hometown physician, student health center, local physician in the college location, or a combination. How often will the student need to followup with the prescriber? The regular physician is often very willing to continue to prescribe medications with followup arranged...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news