Column by Jordan Covvey

Pharmacy students at the UK College of Pharmacy have a love-hate relationship with our exam schedule. Approximately every four weeks, we take all of our exams in one weekend, up to seven on Friday, Saturday and Monday. The week preceding this is often painful and sleepless. I remember during my undergraduate education at UK when I complained about having two papers or projects due on a single day. Try studying for seven subjects at the same time.

I’ve survived the curriculum so far, though not without many late nights at the W.T. Young Library. Usually around 11 p.m., I find myself face-planted in my books, surrounded by a puddle of my own drool. In an effort to wake myself up, I usually take a walk to the vending machines. I pass any number of students buried in their own books, most of them relatively sleep-deprived like myself. However, every once in a while, I pass someone studying like a speed demon, frantically writing and reading. I often wonder where they find the energy.

The unfortunate truth is that some students use stimulants as study aids. While almost all of us will admit to caffeine and sugar addictions, some students abuse prescription stimulants, like Ritalin or Adderall.

Surveys, including one from the University of Michigan, have suggested that as many as 5-10 percent of college students have used prescription stimulants illegally, the majority using them to study longer, stay awake or lose weight.

These medications and other similar drugs have been used to successfully treat many patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but their use by the general population is dangerous. While many people utilize the medications for some of their side effects (decreased appetite, weight loss and insomnia), there is a laundry list of other potentially harmful effects associated with their misuse: headache, nausea and vomiting, visual disturbances, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat and even sudden cardiac death.

Due to these risks, the American Heart Association has recommended that all patients treated with these medications have their cardiovascular health assessed before treatment. Students who abuse these medications for study purposes often take higher than normal doses, have no physician supervision and sometimes resort to alternate methods of taking the drug, such as snorting. Combine these factors together and you might as well cross a highway blind-folded. The risks are the same.

On top of the side effects, there is the issue of drug dependency. Most prescription stimulants are classified as Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act of the United States. Drugs are classified in this category due to their high potential for abuse, which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. Often people feel a misguided safety with prescription drugs, but they can be just as harmful as “illicit” drugs. Students who abuse Adderall (made of a mixture of dextroamphetamine salts) are often the same people who say that they would never use anything as dangerous as methamphetamine. A short spelling lesson should make the hypocrisy obvious. There is a reason that these drugs share similar names — they share similar dangers.

I may be the bearer of bad news, but these medications are not the magic cure for exam studying. Stimulants like these require the close supervision of a physician and the prudent dispensing and monitoring of a pharmacist. Their use brings along a significant list of problems, which can be unpredictable and deadly.

My study advice? Try hitting the books the traditional way. Health concerns aside, I can tell you that success is much sweeter when earned through hard work. Call me old-fashioned, but is a good grade worth risking not being around to see the fruits of your labor?