According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Center, 10 percent of college use stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall illegally at some point. Typically used to treat ADHD, illegal use of these drugs jumped 20 percent between 2004 and 2005.

"'Most students who use their friend’s stimulants do it to improve performance,' said Scott Teitelbaum, M.D., medical director of the Florida Recovery Center at UF. 'It's like athletes taking steroids - the idea that you can study better, harder, longer, as if you were hitting a ball farther.'"

Students who abuse prescription drugs are often already behind in school, which is why they need to cram. Overall, their academic performance is worse than that of other students. Abuse of prescription drugs has increased sharply in the past several years, and is now more common that the uses of crack/cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin and methamphetamine combined.

Read more at News-Medical.net.

Labels: college_students, prescription_drugs, stimulants